Beneath the Surface
by RainyNightSilhouette
Summary: AU FemRyo! Ryoma is dropped off in Japan to polish her talents. Can she find her potential in Shinsei Academy and in her 9 new male housemates? Can the present be her savior or will the her past be too strong? Full summary inside.
1. Prologue

**First Fanfic! Please Read and Review! **

**Summary: FemRyo! Ryoma needs to be saved, and challenged. When she is dropped in Japan to live away from the lime-life can she let her true potential shine? Did I mention that she lives in a house with 9 boys? Ryoma's ****new present can save her, but her past isn't willing to let any part of her go. Can she be free from her past or will she continue to run? Pairings undecided.**

**Some characters may be OOC.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own the Prince of Tennis or iPods or anything else. Just the plot. *Sigh**

**My first fanfic so please no flames! Also please tell me who you want Ryoma to be with!**

* * *

In America there were a handful of good high school tennis players. However there was only one who was called 'The Prince of Tennis'. That person was the one who was hands down the most powerful player in America. With plenty of speed and skill as well as the ability to master all sorts of techniques. Not to mention the balance and accuracy that made the 'Prince''s tennis style unbeatable. However 'The Prince of Tennis' or Ryoma Echizen was not a 'prince' at all. The 'Prince' was really a princess; the 'Prince of Tennis' was really a girl. Ryoma still played as a boy because most players didn't go easy on boys and because she wanted to keep a private life.

Normally said girl would happily be deep in the arms of sleep at 7:20 am on a Saturday. However that was not the case in many ways. Ryoma was unhappily at the airport with her family and closest friends. Today was the day the 'Prince' was leaving for Japan. The place where her father became the 'Samurai Nanjiro'.

_Flashback _

_"Ryoma" a scruffy looking man called out, "We need to talk to you."_

_Ryoma looked up. Her emerald waist length hair was loosing and flowing, only slightly messed up from her nap. "Nani_(1)_ oyaji_(2)_?" her golden eyes shining with curiosity._

_"Well, shoujo your mom and I know that you've been working hard all year but we noticed you're becoming less interested-" "I'm just bored with all the weak players. No one is even a challenge anymore" she interrupted. "Regardless, we've noticed you've become bored when going to junior qualifying tournaments. So we think that a change of venue would be a good idea for you," continued Rinko._

_This piqued Ryoma's curiosity. She had been out of the country but she had never stayed for more that a week or two. "Where would this change of venue be?" she asked cockily. She hoped that it would be a new place like maybe... Switzerland? It's supposed to be nice in the summer right? _

_"You're heading to Japan right after you finish your finals for school and complete your tournament. You will stay there for the next 4 years" her mother smiled._

_Ryoma was stunned Japan! "Why there?" she screamed. "That's so far away from my friends!" She said in a pained tone. Sure, part of her was happy to escape and get a slight reprieve but she did not want to lose her friends. Four years was way to long to be away. _

_"The land of the rising sun. I grew up there, did you know that shoujo_(3)_?" the 'Samurai' said. "Baka_(4)_ oyaji! It's still four years!" She retorted fuming. "Ryo-chan, I know you're upset but you need this. You can use this time to have peace and quite to work on all your skills. You can also come back every summer," Rinko said, trying to calm down her daughter. Ryoma sighed knowing that she had no option and that this would be good for her. After a few minutes Ryoma resigned herself to the fact she was leaving. That was when she smirked," Baka oyaji you said you grew up in Japan right? Then there must be some good tennis players there, ne?" _

_Nanjiro looked at his smirking daughter and smirked back. Look out Japan here comes Ryoma Echizen._

_

* * *

_

The girl known as the 'Prince' sat in the comfortable airport chair waiting for her flight to board. Though she looked bored on the outside, she was excited and somewhat relieved on the inside. She was happy because she was free from creepy fans, from stalkers, but most of all from _them. _She shuddered even the mention of the incident made her blood freeze.

While she was happy she was leaving she was sad she was leaving her friends. Her team was great and she would miss her 3 best friends. Kevin, Joel and Kelly were fantastic and she had yet to meet people she connected with as quickly and as well as those 3. Kevin was determined, loyal, mischievous, loud and a huge flirt and he loved to tease her. He and Ryoga loved to tease her about her height and it bothered her to no end. Joel was the one who saved Kevin from her wrath. He towered over both of them, well Kevin only by 2 inches, at 5' 11 1/2" and was quite and laid back. Both Kevin and Joel were tall, loyal and determined but that was just about the only similarity between the two. Kevin was blonde with blue eyes and was built proportionately. Joel had light brown hair and deep green eyes but was lanky and often mistaken for a skater. However they were great friends and great tennis players.

Kelly was a different matter though. If Kevin and Joel were complete opposites, then Kelly was directly in the middle. She had the same blonde hair as Kevin but the same eye color as Joel. While Joel and Kevin helped each other she and Ryoma were the ones plotting their revenge. She was also a tennis player on their team. Together they were the unstoppable co-captains and co-vice captains of Saratino Academy.

It was those three who supported her when she was participating in the tournaments. They were her best friends. It hurt a lot when she had to say goodbye.

_Flashback_

_~3 weeks after her father told her about moving to Japan~ _

_Ryoma had just arrived at morning practice but she was 15 minutes late. It was extremely unusual for the tennis-loving co-captain. "Ryoma!" Kevin yelled running towards her. "You're late" he cried pulling her towards Joel and Kelly. Ryoma smiled a bit at his childish actions knowing what Kelly would say, "Kevin! Stop pulling on Ryo's arm. It makes you look like a kid. Not a co-captain." "Sorry Kel" he said looking down. "Aww. Kel! Now you've made Kevy sad!" Mika, one of the regulars said as she ran past. "Thank you Mika! At least you love me," he said childishly. Everyone on the team laughed. Ryoma would have laughed with them but instead she tried to smile. Her smile came out more like grimace. _

_Ryoma's face was stiff and it hurt to pretend she was happy. What Ryoma really wanted to do was cry, eat and play tennis with her teammates. Crying wasn't something she wanted to do regularly but she after the 3 weeks she's had she needed to cry. However she knew that breaking down in tears was something she would absolutely not do and it would definitely make the others worry about her. Ryoma did not want to make anyone worry so she hid her pain behind a smile. _

_"Alright everybody back to your laps" Joel said. He caught Kelly and Kevin's eye and nodded. They both noticed the same thing Ryoma was not how she use to be; something was bothering her. _

_"Ryoma. We need to talk to you over there" Kelly said walking over to the fountain. The four of them walked over and sat down. Kelly, Kevin and Joel stared at their co-captain, their friend in silence. Ryoma met their stare but she put on her oblivious and cocky mask. The silence stretched on until Kelly broke it, "What's wrong Ryo-chan?" Ryoma, a bit startled looked at her and tried to act oblivious, "Nothing's wrong Kel. Maybe you're imaging it." Finally Kevin couldn't take it anymore. "Stop it Ryo. Stop it. We can see through that. Take down that mask and just spit it out," He said angrily. Ryoma opened her mouth to reply that she didn't know what he was talking about, when Joel spoke up, "Please Ryo. We've your friends." She looked at their faces, Kelly's worried, Kevin's angry and Joel's pleading, before giving up. "I'm moving to Japan," she said quietly. The three kids in front of her froze. After a moment Kevin grabbed her shirt, "Why! I know that accident shook you up but you can't just leave! What are we gonna do without you?" his voice getting quiet but shaking with unshed tears. "It's not because of that. My mom and dad want me to improve on other things without being stalked. It's not my choice," she said quietly. Kevin stared at his best friend before putting her down and running towards the track. "Kevin" she cried about to running after him. Kelly grabbed her shirt and shook her head, "Don't. Let him cool down first. He's just sad." Ryoma looked back at her two friends. They stared at each other in a painful silence before it was broken, this time by Joel. _

_"How long" he asked softly. "4 years" She responded looking down. Kelly and Joel stared at each other shocked. That was so long. "When do you leave?" Kelly asked shakily. "2 weeks" was Ryoma's response. So soon? The two vice-captains stared at each other and then their female captain before embracing her. Ryoma tensed up but soon relaxed into the hug. She would miss them. Unbeknownst to the girl herself, she began to cry. "Why are you crying dummy" her female vice-captain asked, "We've got to make these next weeks count the most ne?" The crying girl simply nodded and walked back to practice with her two friends. _

*****TIME SKIP*****

_Kevin had ignored Ryoma the whole day. He didn't even come to finish morning practice or eat lunch with her. Joel had assured her Kevin was just sad and moping but Ryoma knew better. Kevin felt betrayed. He felt like Ryoma was abandoning the team; him. She was so tempted to go to Kevin and slap him or yell at him for being stupid but she knew he was deeply hurt._

_Kevin, on the other hand was breaking inside. One of his best friends was leaving him. He desperately wished that she would go up to him and yell "Pysch! I got you! Just kidding Kev!" But he knew she wouldn't because this was not a joke and like it or not she was leaving. _

_Kevin saw how much this was tearing his friend up inside but he just couldn't bring himself to go to her. It was when the bell struck at the end of the day that he knew what he should do. _

_"Ryoma" he called across the room. The golden-eyed girl looked over to him sadness in her eyes. "After school, during practice we are having a match. If I win you can't go. If you win you can go" he said. 'Please Ryoma. Please accept this challenge and beat me. This is the only way I can bring myself to let you leave. I need you to beat me,' he thought. The golden-eyed girl smirked at him, hope evident in her eyes, "Deal. Be prepared to lose Smith; I'm not gonna hold back." The blonde smirked at his best friend. 'I'm not giving up with out a fight Echizen. This is not gonna be easy' he thought, walking to the locker room._

*****TIME SKIP*****

_"Game and Set! Echizen wins 6 games to love" Kelly yells. Kevin and Ryoma were both out of breath. "You didn't hold back at all. Man. You whipped me bad. Where did you pull those new moves from?" he panted, going over to her. "From my hat" she replied sarcastically, accepting the hand. They stood there just grasping hands before she asked, "You're not mad or sad anymore right Kev?" Kevin looked at his best friend before nodding and pulling her into a hug. The vice-captains saw their reconciliation and joined in on the hug. This caused Ryoma to begin to cry again but this time out of relief. She was so happy she wasn't going to lose her best friends._

_

* * *

_

_Attention all passengers. Flight 776 heading for Narita Airport now boarding. Flight 776 is now boarding at Gate 34B. I repeat... _

'Guess that's me' Ryoma thought heading to the gate. Once at the gate she quickly found her seat and put her backpack on her lap. She felt a buzzing and she flipped open her silver phone. She had received 7 new text messages. She opened the first one; it was from Mika.

_Dear Ryoma-sama-buchou _

_We r all really sad you're leaving us but we understand. We don't want 2 disappoint u so we r going 2 train xtra hard. When u come bak we r definitely going 2 surprise u. We r really really going 2 miss u! _

_Love the Saratino regulars_

Ryoma smiled at that message. I know you will make me proud. She scrolled to the next one it was from Joel.

_Ryo, _

_Gud luck in Japan. U r the best captain I could wish 4. U r also 1 of the best friends I could ever wish 4. I am going 2 train extra hard so that when u come bak u will b really proud. U definitely hav 2 come over during the summer. U also have 2 email Kel, Kev & I every day. I just want u 2 know that I am going 2 miss u & that I no u r going 2 stun Japan. _

_Knock 'em Dead, _

_Joel _

The girl smiled fondly. She was going to do just that. The next message she opened came from Kelly.

_~Ryo-chan~ _

_You're leaving me! I can't believe u r leaving me w/ J & Kev! Now how am I gonna deal w/ them? Psh. Not really. I'll do my best 2 make u proud so in the summer u can c what I've done. U promised 2 email me once a day so u better! I'm gonna miss u so much! Yur 1 of my besties so I'm expecting u to come bak every summer. Surprise Japan 4 me! _

_~Always Kelly~ _

_P.S send me sum pics of cute Jap boys! & The clothes! I heard they r super cute! ~_

Ryoma laughed at the last part. That was just like Kelly. It was always a perfect time to think of boys and clothes. Her next text was from Kevin.

_Ryoma! _

_U beat me 4 now. But when u come bak I'll beat u 4 sure. U hav 2 definitely get better. U better wow Japan. & U need 2 come bak every summer. Yur 1 of my best friends & I'll miss u. If u don't come bak I'll drink all yur Ponta. _

_-Kev, the amazing _

_P.S bring me bak Jap fud!_

'So Kevin!' Ryoma thought. She and just about everyone in the tennis team knew about his love of food. It was so great only Ryoma surpassed his hunger. She ate a surprisingly huge amount for a girl her size. She laughed happily as she opened the next one.

_Chibisuke, _

_No fair you're going 2 Japan w/o me! I wanted 2 go! U better come visit during the summer. & U hav 2 email me! I no yur going 2 work on other skills but don't let yur tennis skills get rusty. U hav 2 bring me bak sum fud. & Scope out the girls 4 me. _

_Mada Mada Daze_(5)

_Aniki_(6)

_P.S. No getting a BOYFRIEND!_

She glared at the middle part. "Baka aniki," she muttered. Ryoga may be a pervert but he really did care about Ryoma *read: he has a sister complex*. His caring *read: sister complex* made him extremely protective so he doesn't want her getting a boyfriend. She looked at her next message.

_Shoujo_

_ You're leaving me for Japan. Ah good times there… Say hi to the old hag for me. Don't let the boys beat you! Don't let that accident defeat you & whatever you do don't give up gaki_(7)_. _

_Oyaji_

_P.S. NO BOYFRIENDS!_

She smiled ruefully. "Baka oyaji and aniki," she muttered trying to hold a scowl on her face. She was trying to be nonchalant but she was actually happy that her oyaji gave her that reminder. Ryoma opened the next message.

_Ryoma-chan_

_ I know that you're still sad you're leaving Japan but it's ok. After all you'll make friends really quickly. Now, I don't want you to only practice tennis; work on your other skills as well. _

_You will be enrolled in Shinsei Gakuen as a first year, but you may have to take a test to see your placement. I placed a letter in your backpack with all your information in it. It has a credit card with some of your money from the tournaments but don't spend it all. I know you are probably thinking that Nanako-chan is going to take care of you but since she has to go her job and college at weird times we do not feel comfortable leaving you there so you are going to go a house that our friends own. Some other people are also living there so please be nice. All the instructions are in the envelope._

_Okaa-san_(8)_~!_

_P.S. Please take care of yourself and email me often. _

_Don't tell your aniki or Nanji-kun but catch your self a boyfriend! And wear the dresses I got you!_

Ryoma stared at the message. 'It was so like her mom to write that. Caring and encouraging at the same time' she thought. She smiled and turned off her phone. She put her iPod ear buds into her ears and stared out the window to watch the plane take off.

"Goodbye America" she whispered.

* * *

**It's done! Wow that was so long! I never want to do that again.**

**Notes:**

**1-Nani: What?**

**2-Oyaji: Old man**

**3-Shoujo: Young girl**

**4-Baka: idiot**

**5-Mada Mada Daze: Ryoga's catchphrase**

**6-aniki: Older brother**

**7-gaki: brat**

**8-okaa-san: mother**

**Questions:**

**1) What is the the _accident_?**

**2) What will happen to Ryoma?**

**3) Who will she end up with?**

**Please Review! & In it tell me who you want Ryoma to end up with!**

**~Arigatou~!**


	2. New Home, New Friend

**Yay! Second Chapter! It was so long!**

**Thank you so much to everyone who reviewed I love you all!**

**To animeXbooksXmanga: Ok. As long as you vote!**

**To Twilight Emo Wind Goddess: Ok I'll try to put in a lot of Kaidoh for you!**

**To BadyGuz: Thank you for your honesty! Maybe the OT6 will be her housemates and maybe, but not Keigo because :"Ore-sama will not share a house with such plebians." Now that I re-read that it does sound a little weird but I didn't know any other way to phrase it. You'll understand later.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own the Prince of Tennis or iPods or Demi Lovato or all the other stuff mentioned. Only Sayaka Takanako is mine.**

**Please Read and Review! Please! Ryoma wants you to!**

* * *

"Miss. Miss" a voice broke through Ryoma's sleep. The black-haired girl stirred but didn't wake. "Excuse me. Miss!" the voice shook Ryoma's shoulder a bit harder. The black-haired girl's eyes opened revealing a unique gold color. "What?" the sleepy teen mumbled. The flight attendant looked down on the cute sleeping girl and smiled softly, 'This girl is so cute!' she thought. "I'm sorry miss but we have landed in Tokyo. You need to get up now," she said kindly. The cat eyed girl sat up in alarm! She was in Tokyo already! She quickly grabbed her bag and iPod and ran out of the cabin. Not before mumbling a thank you to the flight attendant though. The girl ran out of the plane, her knee length white dress streaming behind her, and headed for the baggage claim.

While she was waiting for the machine to start she remembered her mother's letter. After finding the letter in her backpack she proceeded to open it.

_Dear Ryoma-chan,_

_In this letter I have your signed forms that you need for school, your credit card, your new address, a list of all the things you need for school, the number and address to the 4 nearest hospitals, tennis shops and Nanako-chan's cell number, address and school contact information. Remember you are going to Shinsei Gakuen and I'm pretty sure that your new housemates also live there. _

_New Address: 789 Sakura Hill, XXXX _(I don't know if this place existed but please don't visit it or find it if it does. I just made this up)

_You will be watched over by Sayaka Takanako-san. She actually doesn't live there but she checks in every few days. You can either go out for dinner or cook. _

_If you need to call her it is: XXX-XXX-XXXX. _

_Your List of Items:_

_7 School Uniforms (Girls)_

_6 P.E. Uniforms _

_A book bag_

_4 face towels_

_4 big towels_

_Cute Clothes (Girls)_

_Grip Tape_

_Sock tape_

_Shoes_

_Hair ties_

_New Cleaning Cloth_

_A New Music Book…._

Ryoma skimmed over the rest. She smiled at the note, her mother, was always worrying.

"BZZZT!" she heard. Ryoma looked over to the rotating luggage and saw that it was moving. She smiled as she saw her tennis bag. Walking over quickly she grabbed her tennis bag, violin case and 3 other big suitcases. She rolled them with her and found a luggage cart. The beautiful girl walked around and went to go pick up her pet, Karupin. Karupin was a very handsome Himalayan cat and he simply adored Ryoma.

"Let's go find a cab ne?" she asked her cat. "Mreow" he responded in agreement. The emerald tinted girl and her cat walked out of the airport.

* * *

Only once the girl had finally hailed a cab and loaded her luggage into the cab and got set off to the house did she allow herself to look out the window. She had been ignoring the scenery in an unconscious attempt to fool herself into believing she was still in Japan. The tennis-star saw lots of parks and houses but few people. 'This is so different from America. I don't see people everywhere I go' she thought. 'No people…Maybe this time I'll be able to escape from what I couldn't in America.' A gloomy sigh passed her lips.

"So. You're a tennis player?" the cab driver asked her, startling her out of her gloomy thoughts. She grunted in response. "I heard a famous 15 year-old tennis star decided to take a break. Maybe if you practice enough you could beat them," he said, not put off by her anti-social behavior. She smirked in response and shook her head, 'If only he knew.'

The rest of the cab ride was relatively silent, only being broken when the cab driver decided to talk. When they finally reached the house he had realized that his passenger did not talk much. He didn't take it personally though because he knew the young teen was just tired. It was clear by the bags under her eyes.

He helped the petite beauty get her bags and cat before she paid him. "Goodbye! Have a nice day" he waved, driving off. Ryoma watched the car drive into the distance before she looked at the looming house in front of her. It was huge, to say the least. Actually it was more of a mansion than a house but she supposed it had to be to fit 9, soon 10 people. Without further hesitation she walked through the gates and up to the house. Ryoma tried to show no fear but she was extremely nervous. There wasn't anyone she knew here and she was on her own. 'I hope the girls living here are nice and don't bother me' was her only thought.

With a steel resolve the young golden-eyed girl knocked on the door and waited. In mere moments she heard the sound of footsteps, a crash then a large Oww and then more footsteps. She waited patiently for the door to open. When it did it was a good surprise. "Hello. I am Echizen, Ryoma. It's nice to meet you" Ryoma bowed. "Konnichiwa (1), Echizen-san. I've been expecting you. Watashi no namae Takanako Sakaya yorudesu (2). It's nice to meet you," the woman said. She only looked to be about 27 at most and her hair was a vibrant blue color that went down a little past her shoulders. Takanako-san also had kind sky blue eyes, but she didn't seem to be the kind to let people push her around.

"The pleasure's all mine." Ryoma replied politely. She was still wary of Takanako-san even though she seemed to be nice and honest, it wasn't anything personal though. Ryoma had naturally become wary and a bit paranoid of people over the years.

"You're Rinko-chan's daughter right? Wow! She said you were adorable but I never thought you were this kawaii (3)!" Takanako-san exclaimed grabbing Ryoma's hand and one of her bags. Ryoma blushed, her mother was always telling people how cute she was. Even though Ryoma was constantly being hit on, both as the "Prince" and as a girl, she either didn't care or never believed them. Especially after the "incident" she hasn't felt very pretty.

While Ryoma was thinking, Takanako-san had dragged her up the north side staircase down the left corridor and took 2 rights then a left and she finally stopped in front of a door. "Echizen-chan? We're at your room, now," Takanako-san said breaking through Ryoma thoughts. Ryoma woke up from her thoughts and looked around. She hadn't even paid attention to where she was walking. 'That was so stupid of you, Ryoma!' she scolded herself. After her internal scolding she returned her gaze to the door lying in front of her. It was a large deep cherry red door. It had her name painted on it in gold,_ Ryoma Echizen_. It was quite beautiful to look at and it made her look at the doors next to her, se saw _Akaya Kirihara _written on the dark blue door to her left and the name,_ Kunimitsu Tezuka _ on the brown door to her right. The dark green door across from her said, _Kaoru Kaidoh. _'Hmm, I wonder who they are' she asked herself.

Takanako-san took out a key and unlocked the door revealing a beautiful room. Ryoma was just beginning to look over the room when her stomach growled. Ryoma blushed a bit and looked down embarrassed. "Oh Ryoma!" Takanako-san exclaimed. "I'm so sorry. I didn't even think if you would be hungry. I'm so sorry! Why don't you and I go out to eat, normally I or another person in the house would cook dinner but they all went out for a celebratory dinner at their friend's sushi house."

Ryoma looked up and smiled a bit, "Arigato, Takanako-san." "No problem, Echizen-chan. Besides I have a feeling we'll become good friends. Why don't we go after you've unpacked?" she asked smiling warmly at the young girl. Takanako-san could tell that Ryoma was a real sweetheart but something was paining her. She knew from Rinko-chan that Ryoma had experienced something painful but not what it was but she wanted to help Ryoma anyway. Takanako-san turned and walked to the door but before leaving she turned towards Ryoma, "And call me Sayaka. Ok, Echizen-chan?" Ryoma looked back at the older woman and nodded smiling, "Then call be Ryoma, Sayaka-chan." Sayaka saw Ryoma's smile and her heart warmed. Ryoma looked beautiful and happy when she smiled. Sayaka only nodded and left.

Ryoma turned back to look at her room, smiling. She had already made a new friend. Maybe Japan wouldn't be as bad as she thought.

Ryoma's room was beautiful. The room was quite spacious; it had light green walls and a high white ceiling. The floor was carpeted with white carpet and everything looked absolutely clean. Against the west wall was her bed, it was king sized and had beige and sky blue sheets. The wall next it was really a balcony with sheer white curtains that opened up over the backyard. She was so mesmerized by the sight that she pushed open the French doors and step out on to it. From there she could see a wide backyard and when she turned to the east she could see a pool and what looked like a tennis court. 'Perfect' she smiled. 'She could play her violin, sing and play tennis here. She felt the breeze that blew her waist length emerald tinted hair around her and remembered she had to unpack. Regretfully, she turned and walked back to her room, closing the doors behind her.

Ryoma looked over at her bags and unzipped the biggest. She kept it on the floor because if she brought it over to the bed, Karupin, who had long since claimed the bed, would stick his head in her clothes. Looking around the room she finally saw the closet. She saw that it was across from her bed so she rezipped her bag up and rolled it up to the large light green door. Opening the door she noticed how large her closet was. It was a walk-in closet but she never thought that it would be **that** big. It was easily three times the size of the closet she had in America. She shook her head and unzipped her bag. She took out her clothes and started to organize them. The fanciest at the back on the right, her tennis clothes in the front on the left and her normal clothes in the middle on both sides Then, at the bottom she put her spare bags and her shoes. She had purposely left the front right empty so that she could put her school clothes there. 'Maybe, Sayaka-chan will come with me to buy new clothes tomorrow' she mused to herself, turning to leave the closet. As she was leaving she saw something, it was a bay window with a seat and cushions. She walked over to it and looked out. The window looked out over the a section of the garden and she could see a beautiful myriad of colors. She sat down at felt the cushions; they were really comfortable and quite fluffy. After she got up she saw a door directly across from the window. It was subtle and she almost hadn't seen it. She opened it and stepped through. It led into her bathroom. The bathroom had light blue walls and both a shower and a bath. The floor was tiled and she had no doubt that her feet would be cold if she wasn't wearing socks. She looked around for another door that she knew was there. It was right next to her vanity mirrors so she walked back into her bedroom. Now that she knew where everything was she was happy. She returned to her bags and took out Karupin's dishes and toys, placing them by her desk. The desk was painted white and was in the left corner next to a window and a row of 3 bookcases. She smiled and placed her books in the selves, about half of them were for reading but the other half were either music books and scores or about tennis.

She walked back and grabbed her violin and tennis bag. She placed both on her bed and glanced back at the clock. She saw that it was nearly 6:00 p.m. She had been unpacking for about an hour. Grabbing her backpack from the plane, which had her pencil case, drawing pad, cell phone, camera, wallet and other stuff, she ran out the door not forgetting to give Karupin a pet, a hug and a quick "goodbye" first, and ran down the corridor.

* * *

Sayaka and Ryoma had driven down to a restaurant that Sayaka said had "the best chocolate and orange cake in the world". Together the two girls caught the eyes of many of the patrons but only one was aware. Sayaka smiled as yet another boy had tried to get Ryoma to talk to him but the oblivious beauty shot him down. At least this one hadn't tried any stupid pick up lines on her like some of the others.

_Flashback_

"_Hey baby. Did it hurt when you fell?" a fairly handsome brunette asked her. _

"_Fell from where?" Ryoma asked completely oblivious to the 'seductive' looks the guy was giving her._

"_From heaven. Because you look like an angel," he said 'seductively'._

"_Nope, but did it hurt when someone dropped you on your face, because it looks broken," she responded back. _

_The guy's jaw dropped. Everyone around him was trying to hold back laughter as the unknown beauty told Sasabe off._

"_Now if you don't mind, I think I'll leave," Ryoma said leaving the chair she was sitting in. _

After the two had finished their meal they began to do some shopping. Ryoma had wanted to go tomorrow but Sayaka had insisted that they go today because she had school tomorrow. Ryoma had been shocked but then she realized that today was Sunday and that tomorrow was Monday.

* * *

Once the girls had returned back at the house it was already 10:00 p.m. Ryoma was tired but she helped Sayaka carry the bags back to her room and put them in her huge walk-in closet. Ryoma was worried about tomorrow but Sayaka assured her that it would be fine.

The two girls had bonded through dinner, and shopping. In fact Sayaka had become a sort of older sister to Ryoma which was unusually because usually Ryoma was extremely anti-social. In fact she usually scared people off with her bluntness. The two had exchanged phone numbers and together they had collected all the things that Ryoma needed and more. During the shopping trip Sayaka had noticed that the golden-eyed girl was indifferent to how people felt of her but she knew that Ryoma was still a little afraid of making a fool out of herself. Sayaka also knew that Ryoma would never admit that nor would she accept help. However Sayaka had given her reassurances that everyone would be nice and that if they weren't then at least the others who lived in the house would be. Sayaka told Ryoma that they were all on the tennis team. However she failed to mention that all of her housemates were guys.

Sayaka gave Ryoma some final reassurance before setting both of Ryoma's alarm clocks and leaving. Ryoma watched Sayaka leave and yawned. She walked into her closet and took out her new pajamas and brushed her teeth and hair, thinking about the huge change in her life. Ryoma was actually quite surprised that she hadn't broken down into tears, but then again she never did that. She was Ryoma Echizen afterall. So, Ryoma packed her school and tennis bag and then hopped into bed with Karupin and her iPod. She hit shuffle and the song Me, Myself and Time by Demi Lovato began to play.

_I can make the rain stop, if I wanna _

_Just by my attitude _

_I can take my laptop, record a snapshot _

_And change your point of view _

_I just entered this brand new world _

_And I'm so open hearted _

_I know I've got a long way to go _

_But I'm, I'm just getting started _

'That's right. I'm starting anew. No one knows my secrets. No one knows what happened. No one knows about the 'incident'. I'll find the thing I was missing this time,' Ryoma thought to herself.

_I'm over my head and _

_I know it, I know it _

_I'm doing my best _

_Not to show it, to show it _

'Am I over my head? I am kind of scared. I'm all alone. But, I'll be ok.'

_Whatever it takes to be _

_What I was meant to be _

_I'm gonna try _

_'Cause I'm living the dream _

_And I know it, I know it _

_I'm trying my best _

_Not to blow it, to blow it _

_And I know everything will be fine _

_With me, myself, and time _

_And time... (7x) _

_I go where life takes me _

_but some days it makes me _

_Want to change my direction _

_Sometimes it gets lonely but I know _

_that it's only a matter of my perception _

'Sometimes I am lonely, but I know that, that's just me feeling sorry for myself. Even if I'm alone I'll be ok.'

_I just entered this brand new world _

_And I'm so open hearted _

_I know I've got a long way to go _

_but I'm, I'm just getting started _

_I'm over my head and _

_I know it, I know it _

_I'm doin' my best _

_Not to show it, to show it _

_Whatever it takes to be _

_What I was meant to be _

_I'm gonna try _

_'Cause I'm Living the dream _

_And I know it, I know it _

'I had the dream when I was the "Prince" but I wasn't happy. Maybe this time I'll be happy.'

_I'm trying my best _

_Not to blow it, to blow it _

_And I know everything will be fine _

_With me, myself, and time _

_And maybe there's nothing like this moment _

_To just be real and let the truth be spoken _

_Whatever's broke I can make it unbroken _

_Turn the led in my hand into something golden _

'I'll live my life as I want it. I won't lie anymore. I won't back down either.'

_Just try, more love _

_If I just try, more love _

_Then I'll find myself in time _

_I'm over my head and _

_I know it, I know it _

_I'm doin' my best _

_Not to show it, to show it _

_Whatever it takes to be _

_What I was meant to be _

_I'm gonna try _

_I'm over my head and _

_I know it, I know it _

_I'm doin' my best _

_Not to show it, to show it _

_Whatever it takes to be _

_What I was meant to be _

_I'm gonna try _

_'Cause I'm Living the dream _

_And I know it, I know it _

_I'm trying my best _

_Not to blow it, to blow it _

_And I know everything will be fine _

_With me, myself, and time _

_(I'll find myself in time _

_I know I'll find myself in time)_

'That's right I'll find myself. And I'll show everyone who Ryoma Echizen really is.'

* * *

**1) Hello**

**2) My name is Sayaka Takanako**

**3) cute**

**Another chapter is done! Sayaka will be important in the end and I hope you liked this chapter!**

**This song was stuck in my head so I just had to put it in!**

**Please Review! PLEASE!**


	3. First Match

**Third Chapter! This is the longest chapter EVER!**

**Thank you so much to everyone who reviewed!**

**To animelover4ever69: Thank you so much for saying that! LOL! But, Ore-sama would not be rooming with her at first because he does not know who she is.**

**To little prince ryo: Yes, since so many people love Seichi, he will be one of Ryoma's housemates.**

**To BadyGuz: Arigato! Gomen!**

**To IceDragon21: Next chapter will have Royal Pair and Yukiryo.**

**Arigato to everyone who reviewed! I love you all so much!**

**Ryoma: Arigato. Please go to her profile and vote... *to Canon*, There I said it, can I have my Ponta now?**

**Canon: Do the disclaimer.**

**Ryoma: Che, fine. Canon does not own anything except the plot and Hikari-chan. *turns to Canon* Ponta.**

**Canon: Good girls, *gives Ryoma the Ponta* **

**Please Review! Please Review!**

* * *

BEEP! BEEP! "RYOMA! WAKE UP NOW!" three loud voices cried. The girl in question groaned and got up. She sluggishly got up and walked to the alarm clock on the other side of the room. It wasn't her fault that she could sleep through a cyclone and that only the thing that could wake her up were the combined voices of Kelly, Kevin and Ryoga. The girl groaned and headed to her luxurious closet.

She quickly grabbed her school uniform, and headed into the shower. The hot water pounded on the sleepy girl's back, waking her up. The golden-eyed beauty began to clean herself and in the process somehow became completely relaxed. Ryoma was so relaxed that she began to sing the song that had been plaguing her mind.

_I come home in the morning light,_

_My mother says "When you gonna live your life right?"_

'That's right. I have to live my life the way I want to,' she thought.

_Oh, mother, dear,_

_We're not the fortunate ones,_

_And girls,_

_They wanna have fu-un._

_Oh, girls,_

_Just wanna have fun._

_The phone rings in the middle of the night,_

_My father yells "What you gonna do with your life?"_

'That's right. How far will I go? How far?' she questioned herself. "As far as possible" she replied.

_Oh, daddy dear,_

_You know you're still number one,_

'I'll beat you one day oyaji.'

_But girls,_

_They wanna have fu-un,_

_Oh, girls just wanna have_

_That's all they really want..._

_Some fun..._

_When the working day is done,_

_Oh, girls,_

_They wanna have fu-un,_

_Oh, girls,_

_Just wanna have fun..._

_Some boys take a beautiful girl,_

_And hide her away from the rest of the world._

_I wanna be the one to walk in the sun._

'That's right. I'm not like the other girls. I control my life. It is my life.'

_Oh, girls,_

_They wanna have fu-un._

_Oh, girls,_

_Just wanna have_

_That's all they really want..._

_Some fun..._

_When the working day is done,_

_Oh, girls,_

_They wanna have fu-un._

_Oh, girls,_

_Just wanna have fun..._

_When the working',_

_When the working day is done._

_Oh, when the working day is done,_

_Oh, girls..._

_Girls,_

_Just wanna have fu-un..._

Ryoma finished her song and shower, and stepped out of the steamy glass chamber. She hummed and wrapped a towel around her body and one around her hair. She swayed a bit while walking to her clothes. She was a little groggy the morning but otherwise she wasn't nervous what so ever.

* * *

While the petite beauty was taking her shower, her other house-mates were finishing getting ready to leave for morning practice…

" Hurry up Kirihara!" a red haired boy yelled. The boy mentioned, stumbled down the stairs half asleep. "Marui-sempai. Go away," the tired black-haired boy said. The volley specialist simply grabbed a piece of toast, put it in his second year's mouth and shoved him out the door. "Hurry. Hurry, before he-" Marui said, trying to escape. "Marui-sama!" a loud, uncharacteristically awake voice yelled. The red head in question turned in horror toward the body flying at him. "Ne! Ne! Marui-sama can I walk to school with you?" the blonde boy smiled. Marui looked down at the bright smile on his face before nodding his head in resignation. Not even a pack of crazy fan-girls was going to stop this boy, so how would he?

Realizing that they weren't going to leave any time soon, Kirihara went back inside for breakfast. Sitting down at the table, he saw that Kikumaru-sempai and Oshitari-sempai were already up. He knew Tezuka-buchou, Kaidoh-kun Yukimura-buchou and Sanada-fukubuchou had already left. Those three loved to get up early. "Ohayo Kirihara-kun!" Kikumaru yelled. "Ohayo Kirihara-san" Oshitari said calmly. "Ohayo sempai," he grinned. "Where is Marui?" Oshitari questioned. Kirihara's smile grew bigger and nodded in the direction of the door. The three looked over and saw Akutagawa hanging onto Marui with a look of absolute adoration on his face.

The four boys laughed at the scene. Marui turned to glare at them but noticed the clock. "It's 7:08! We're gonna be late for practice" he shouted, grabbing his bag and running out the door. There was a long pause before the words finally hit home. "Nya~! Hurry before Tezuka-buchou assigns us laps! Or worse before Inui gives us Juice" Kikumaru yelled following Marui's lead. The others shuddered and ran after the two. If there was one thing they dreaded it was Inui's juice.

As the Regulars ran to practice, Ryoma was beginning getting ready for her first day.

* * *

The dark haired beauty sat down on her bed in her freshly made bed in her brand new uniform. It was a cream colored blazer with dark blue trim. Underneath was a short dark blue and black trimmed skirt. The white long sleeved shirt under the blazer had a dark black bow tied around it. She wore white knee high socks with dark blue trim at the top. She was brushing her now dried emerald tinted hair. 'It's so long now' she thought. When Ryoma began her last tournament in America her hair was to the middle of her back. Now it brushed her waist. Normally she would have cut as soon as she discovered this fact but she remember two things, 1) her promise to her mother to become a bit more feminine, and what better way to start than to have long hair? 2) She also didn't want to be mistaken for a boy or like her counterpart, the Prince.

"Well there's no way I'm gonna look like boy in this outfit," she mumbled to herself. The golden-eyed beauty smiled to herself and grabbed her bags (school, tennis and violin) and shoes and headed down stairs. As she walked down stairs she noticed a huge heap of plates in the sink and a plate full of pancakes on the table. Ryoma raised one eyebrow, 'Well, I guess my housemates left already.' She walked over to the cupboard and got out a plate for herself.

After she ate 16 pancakes she placed her dish in the sink with the others. 'Even if it was American it was pretty good.' She was about to leave when she spotted a clock. 'It was only 7:20, school didn't start till 8:15 and she was only 5 minutes away. Shrugging her shoulders she turned back to the dishes, "Mada, mada dane" and she began to clean them.

5 minutes later and she was done. Seeing that it was still very early Ryoma decided to go check out the school and possibly even the tennis courts. Running back upstairs she quickly changed into a pair of white knee-length shorts and a red tank top and a red and white loose sports jacket and pulled all her hair up into the 'Prince's' signature hat. Before she left she filled Karupin's water dish and food dispenser and gave him a pet and kissed him "Goodbye". Closing her door she stuffed her uniform into her tennis bag she ran towards the door. After pulling on her shoes she made her way towards her new school.

* * *

"All right. Members split into Rikkaidai, Hyotei and Seigaku! All non-regulars begin warm-ups and then begin on practicing your swings! All regulars head to the courts. GO!" yelled Tezuka. A loud collective "Hai" sounded through the courts. A flurry of movement followed the response as players scrambled to get partners. Eventually all members went to their respective locations.

All around the courts, non-regulars were scattered. However the regulars, who were already warmed up, stood awaiting instructions. "Today, practice is going to be a bit different. I will split you into groups of 3, one player from each section and you will play a few single set matches," Ryuuzaki-sensei, the coach said. The members looked at each other in obvious surprise. Groups of 3 were quite unusual for them, normally it was groups of 2 or 4, and even then they were from the same team or 2 teams. "Once you have been split into a group you may not switch nor change groups. In addition you must follow this plan:

Morning Practice:

Game 1: Rikkaidai & Hyotei vs. Seigaku- 1 ball

Game 2: Seigaku & Hyotei vs. Rikkaidai- 1 ball

Game 3: Rikkaidai & Seigaku vs. Hyotei- 1 ball

Game 4: S vs. H- R calls

Game 5: R vs. S- H calls

Game 6: H vs. R- S calls

Afternoon Practice:

Game 1: R & H vs. S- 2 balls

Game 2: S & H vs. R- 2 balls

Game 3: R & S vs. H- 2 balls

Game 4: S vs. H- R calls

Game 5: R vs. S- H calls

Game 6: H vs. R- S calls

I know many of you may be concerned with the amount of time each set may take so I had Sadaharu-kun make up some rules. For the two against one, the single side has to win 3 games in order to win. The double side has to win 4 games in order to win. In the singles matches, a side must win 4 games in order to win" she said.

The members looked at the chart then at their coach and then to each other. Inside each players' head resounded the single thought, 'Kami-sama, SAVE ME!' "Now then, let7s split you all into groups" Ryuuzaki-sensei said with a smile almost as sadistic as Fuji's. That smiled scared nearly all of the regulars, except for Tezuka, Fuji, Yukimura, and Akutagawa, who was asleep, again.

After Ryuuzaki-sensei had had her fun she sent the groups off to the courts.

Court A: Tezuka, Atobe and Yukimura (to everyone's relief)

Court B: Fuji, Sanada and Oshitari

Court C: Oishi, Yagyuu and Ootori

Court D: Sadaharu, Shishidou, and Yanagi

Court E: Kikumaru, Mukahi, and Kirihara

Court F: Momoshiro, Kabaji, and Kuwahara

Court G: Kawamura, Akutagawa, and Niou

Court H: Kaidoh, Hiyoshi, and Marui

The sadistic side of Ryuuzaki-sensei has shown herself again! "By the way, these are your groups for the rest of the week. Be sure to learn a lot and take care of each other" she smiled, again. With a tear the regulars headed to the courts.

* * *

Ryoma had just reached the school when she heard one of her favorite sounds in the world, tennis balls hitting a racket. She smiled happily and walked over to the sounds. She walked past a few non-regulars warming up and she knew she was getting closer. Turning around the next corner she saw an intense match between a closed eyed brunette and a bluenette with glasses. "Higuma Otoshi" whispered the brunette as the yellow sphere fell behind the bluenette. "Game, Fuji 2-1. Oshitari to serve," a tall boy in a cap shouted. Ryoma stared in surprise at Fuji. Perhaps this team had some pretty good players after all. 'Maybe I should register now,' she thought to herself. Ryoma turned and walked away from the court not knowing that another person in a cap saw her exit. 'Who was that' Sanada asked himself. 'Not a spy. No, definitely not. A new student perhaps?' "Sanada-san?" a voice broke through his thoughts. Sanada turned towards the bluenette, "Yes, Oshitari-san?" "Are you alright. You totally spaced out on us for a moment. Quite unlike you, I must say" Oshitari replied concerned. Both players were concerned, Sanada never, and they mean NEVER took his focus off of a match. Especially when he was the umpire. "I'm fine…..Just fine" Sanada replied quietly, tearing his gaze from where he first saw the boy.

* * *

'This is going to be so much fun' Ryoma smiled to herself. It wasn't her fault this time. Not really. She was only trying to find the tennis coach so she could join when you stumbled upon what got her into _this_.

_~Flashback~_

"_C'mon. Just one date," Ryoma heard a voice say. _

"_Like I said, I already have a boyfriend," another, more feminine voice replied, obviously pissed off._

"_And like I said, just one date," the gruff voice said louder. Ryoma heard a small scream. Her eyes widened, as she thought of the poor girl in trouble. 'I won't let what happened to me happen to someone else' she thought as she turned the corner. The sight Ryoma stumbled across chilled Ryoma's heart. A big average looking boy was pinning a small girl with medium length red hair to the ground. "Stop!" Ryoma yelled. The two figures looked up at her, one in relief and the other in anger. "What can you do about it, shrimp?" the boy mocked. Ryoma's anger flared and she launched herself at the boy. _

_She tore the boy off of the girl with ease. The boy however did not want to let go of his prize so he vainly tried to kick and hit Ryoma. Smirking in amusement and anger she flipped the boy over her shoulder, "That's what I'm going to do about it. Mada Mada Dane, baka." _

_Ryoma walked away from the unconscious boy only to be hit, full force with a heart-wrenching cry. "Thank you! Oh, thank you so much!" the girl cried. Ryoma looked at the girl. They were nearly the same height. _

"_You're welcome" Ryoma smiled. _

"_Arigato! I am Ritana Hikari but you can call me Hikari-chan. I am in class 3-B. Thank you so much!" Hikari cried hugging Ryoma harder._

"_You're welcome. I am Echizen Ryoma, call me Ryoma. I am a new student. Now, please be careful next time. Ok?" _

"_Alright," she replied finally calming down. "Well, since you are new, why don't I-"_

"_That's him!" a semi familiar voice shouted. The two whipped around to see a group of boys about 10 feet from them. Apparently the boy Ryoma had knocked out had woken up and brought friends. _

_Ryoma, saw them and stood up straight, "Is there something you want?" she asked in an extremely cold voice. The boys looked ready to charger her when the boy she had knocked unconscious stopped them. "No. Fighting didn't work the first time. Let's try something else" he said smirking. The boys around him began to snicker and smile, making Ryoma's raise an eyebrow, 'Something was up.' _

"_What do you propose, then?" she asked her voice unwavering. The boys began to snicker louder, "How about a tennis match. If you win then we will leave you and Ritana-san alone. If we win, then I get to return your favor." Ryoma stood for a moment, trying to suppress her laughter, 'This boy thought he could win a match against her.' The boys mistaking her silence for fear began to whisper, "Maybe you scared the runt Sasabe." That was when Ryoma lost it. She smirked and replied, "If you think you can win, bring it."_

_~End Flashback~_

That was how Ryoma ended up here. Across the court from Sasabe, the loser. Hikari-chan had pleaded with her not to play against him because he was supposedly the best non-regular player on the team. Ryoma simply laughed at that and said, "He doesn't seem like much."

"Echizen vs. Sasabe. One Set Match, Echizen to serve." Hikari called. Ryoma had taken out her favored red racket and placed it into her right hand. Bouncing the ball a few times before throwing it up in the air a _thwack_ sounded and Sasabe could hardly believe his eyes. 'That ball was fast' he thought. "Lucky shot," he stuttered trying to calm his nerves. Ryoma heard this and smirked, "Really? Then you'll be able to hit this easily, ne?" Ryoma served again but this time, the ball was even faster. The eyes of the spectators widened. That serve was fast. "30-love, Echizen leads" Hikari said, a bit stunned. Hikari was sure no one except the regulars had beaten Sasabe, but Ryoma-san was doing so without even breaking a single sweat.

* * *

"Echizen leads, 3 games to Love. Switch courts." Hikari said. By now a small crowd had surrounded the courts. Many had come to see Sasabe beat an unknown boy but were thrown for a loop when they found that the unknown boy was beating Sasabe. The two tennis players switched courts and the difference was clear to even a blind man. One of the players was sweating profusely, panting and tall. The other in comparison didn't seem to be a bit tired at all. In fact the golden-eyed youth looked bored!

"Can we hurry this up? I have to get my schedule" the bored youth said, yawning. Sasabe became even angrier, "Sure, I'll speed this up, shortie."

Ryoma looked at him and raised an eyebrow, 'He is definitely ticked,' she thought gleefully. 'Maybe he'll make a few good plays this time.'

Sasabe served with a wicked look in his eye. The ball was like any other so Ryoma returned it easily. Sasabe, saw the return and hit the ball. However when he hit it, his racket flew out of his hand and collided with Ryoma's head.

The black racket swung out of Sasabe's grip and flew forwards to hit Ryoma on the forehead. Despite being hit in the head, Ryoma managed to return the ball but fell on her back (She did this cool twist thing, like what Kikumaru-sempai does). Luckily for her, her hat stayed on.

'That is it!' Ryoma thought angrily. "You want to play it that way? Well, ok. I'll play along," she said wiping the blood from her face. She picked up Sasabe's racket and returned it to him with a , "Mada, mada dane." Going back to the baseline, Ryoma served this time, she let him see something special, her Twist Serve. Sasabe looked stunned. "What was that" everyone whispered.

"Oh. A Twist Serve. How interesting" a certain brunette tensai said. All the members jumped and turned around. Most of the regulars were here and many of them had been watching. "What an interesting kid ne, Fujiko?" Kikumaru-sempai said hopping up and down. Fuji nodded with a smile, " Very interesting."

* * *

"Game, set and match. 6 games to Love. Echizen Wins!" Hikari shouted running to hug Ryoma. All around her the crowd broke out in to cheering. Despite the fact that Sasabe used countless dirty tricks to injure Ryoma she still beat him. She didn't even let him score a point. "Mada, mada dane," she said to Sasabe before walking towards her bag.

"Nya~ Ochibi was so cool!" a very hyperactive red head yelled, glomping Ryoma. The girl was caught off guard by the hyper boy and fell. "Ano,…sempai…please get….off of…me" she choked out.

Seigaku's fukubuchou saw the poor tennis player turning purple and began to fret. "Eiji! Echizen-san is turning purple!" he cried. Kikumaru looked down at the now purple tennis player and let go immediately. "Gomen ochibi! GOMEN~!" the acrobat yelled. The girl shook her head, "Iie. It's ok." Seeing that school was about to start, Ryoma sprinted towards the building.

"Aww! Ochibi ran away! Oishi~! Ochibi ran away!" Kikumaru-sempai cried.

"Eiji, did you even tell him your name?" the fukubuchou asked.

"Of course I-…. Come to think of it…I don't think I did" the redhead

"I would have run away too," Fuji commented.

"What?" Eiji cried.

"Me too" Mukahi responded. Kaidoh, Momoshiro, Marui, Hiyoshi, Akutagawa, Niou, Kuwahara, Kirihara and Ootori nodded in agreement.

"Nani! Nya~Oishi! They're being mean to me!" the more hyper half of the Golden Pair cried, clinging to his other half.

"What exactly was that match about anyway?" Ootori asked. The regulars, exchanged looks, none of them knew. "I believe that it was a match over the safety of class 3-B's Ritana Hikari. It seems that Sasabe-san was trying to coerce Ritana-san into going on a date with him, even though she is dating Kawamura-san. There is a 90% that Echizen-san did so out of pure instinct and need to protect the week and a 10% chance that he has a crush on her," Inui said, appearing behind the regulars. "Saa... Interesting ne?" Fuji replied looking in the direction the golden-eyed player ran off in.

* * *

"Now, class. We have a new student joining us. She is a first year, but she has a few classes with the 3rd and 2nd years," a purple haired teacher said. The teacher turned to the door and motioned. Stepping through the door was a sight that stunned all of the students. It was a beautiful girl with 3 bags in her hand, one was clearly for school, one seemed to be for tennis and the last looked like a violin case.

The bishoujo had a slightly bored look on her face but only because she hated being the new kid. 'It's a good thing I changed into my uniform before class started,' she thought looking at the stunned kids. "Now, Echizen-chan why don' you introduce yourself?" the sensei asked.

"Konnichiwa. Watashi no namae Echizen Ryoma desu. Yoroshiku onegaishimasu" the beauty replied bowing. The class was still stunned. "Kawaii!" screamed a few girls. The tennis player's golden eyes widened, 'Oh no. Not again!'

"Now class one question at a time," the teacher said calmly.

"Echizen-chan, where did you live before?" a loud girl asked her.

"America" she responded bluntly.

"SUGOI!" the class said.

"Do you play the violin," a boy asked curious.

"Yes" she responded bluntly.

"Do you play tennis too?" an other boy asked politely.

"Hai," she said, internally smirking.

"SUGOI! So talented!" the class said.

"That is nothing! I, Horio Satoshi have 2 years of tennis experience! And I have played the piano for an entire year!" a very loud and obnoxious voice said proudly.

The class dismissed the loud boy's comment; it was Horio he would never stop. The beauty merely shrugged her shoulders and walked to the only open desk. It was in the far back and right next to the window. 'Nice. I can nap' she thought.

She pulled out her pencil case and notebook to return to watching the teacher talk about history. Ryoma knew most of this already but she enjoyed listening more about Japanese history. "Ohayou, Echizen-san. I am Ryuuzaki Sakuno" a quite voice spoke to her right. Ryoma turned to see a girl with two long braids smiling at her softly.

"Ohayou Ryuuzaki-san. Please call me Ryoma-chan. I'm not quite use to calling everyone by their last names," The petite beauty replied.

"Sure, Ryoma-chan, but only if you call me, Sakuno-chan" Sakuno replied, smiling at the cat eyed girl.

"Sure, Sakuno-chan." the girl replied. 'Another friend? Wow! 2 in one day! This must be a record'

* * *

"Ok. Class second period is about to begin. Echizen-chan you may go to your class now. Oh and please have Ryuuzaki-chan go with you." The teacher said, awaking the slumbering bishoujo.

"Hai," she said wiping her eyes. "Kawaii!" the girls yelled. The two girls stood up and headed over to the doors. Before leaving, Ryoma remembered she had to be polite so she turned and bowed, "Arigato minna." The girls proceeded to squeal about of kawaii she was. The boys on the other hand, were stunned at how absolutely stunning she was, even more so when she smiled.

The girls walked to room 3-B. "Here you are, Ryoma-chan. Lunch is in an hour so why don't you eat lunch with me and my friends," Sakuno asked. Ryoma turned and smiled at her new friend, "Sure, Sakuno-chan." Sakuno smiled and headed back to class. 'Ryoma is sure smart. She has English and Science with 3rd year! She also has Math and Grammar with 2nd years!' Sakuno thought in awe over her new friend.

* * *

"Now, class we have a new student joining us today. She is a 1st year but he has English and Science with us and Math and Grammar with 2nd years. Please treat her kindly," the teacher said, ushering in the smart 1st year.

Just like when she walked through the 1st year door the same reaction happened. Only it was a bit faster. "Kawaii!" all the girls screamed. The 'kawaii' girl only blinked in response and bowed, "Konnichiwa. Watashi no namae Echizen Ryoma desu. Yoroshiku onegaishimasu."

"Eh! Ryoma-chan is that you? I never knew you were a 1st year not to mention a girl! But you still beat Sasabe!" a familiar voice exclaimed. Ryoma looked up, "Mada mada dane Ritana-sempai!"

"Mou~Ryoma-chan! You promised to call me Hikari-chan! I mean you did save me from Sasabe and you did beat him in a proper tennis match. Oh I can't thank you enough!" squealed the pink haired girl. Hikari had been bored the whole time in class but as soon as Ryoma stepped through the door she was surprised. Not only was a super cute kouhai in her class now but also she had the same name as her savior. No, Hikari did not have a crush on the mysterious tennis player, she was horribly in love with her boyfriend, Kawamura Takashi, she only felt extreme gratitude to the player. Without his intervention Sasabe would have raped her and as it was he was already sitting in the Principal's office. However, when she looked closer she noticed that her kouhai and her savior were one in the same.

The class heard Hikari's outburst and everything became still. The boy who beat Sasabe, was a 1st year? Not to mention a girl!

"Echizen-chan you may take a seat next to Fuji. Fuji please raise your hand so Echizen-chan knows who you are," the teacher replied oblivious to her stunned students. Fuji raised his hand and smiled a bit wider than his normal smile. 'Saa, this will be interesting ne?' a certain tensai thought.

Ryoma walked over to the empty seat next to the semi-familiar brunette. "Ohayou Ryo-chan. I saw your tennis skills, quite impressive I must say but I believe you were holding back. Care to tell me what?" the tensai asked.

"First of all, don't you know it's rude to talk to a person without introducing yourself? Second, Don't call me Ryo-chan. Third Why should I tell you sempai?" she retorted.

The tensai chuckled, 'this girl was quite unique'. Normally one would be falling all over him but instead she stood up to him and talked back. 'Yes, she is definitely interesting,' he thought.

"Saa, I apologize Ryo-chan. My name is Fuji Syusuke. Nice to meet you" he chuckled.

"Konichiwa Fuji-sempai. Don't call me Ryo-chan," she said slightly upset. Fuji saw her face and merely chuckled, her pouting face was so cute. "Ah, gomen Ryo-chan. Now will you tell me?" he asked her.

However when he turned to look at the girl he chuckled again. His dear, adorable kouhai was asleep. 'Interesting indeed,' he thought smiling wider. Looking closer Fuji noticed that her unique golden eyes were shut tightly and her black and green tinted hair framed her face beautiful. 'She looks so kawaii' he thought, snapping a picture of her.

Neither person saw Ryoma's cell phone light up. That only meant one thing, New Message.

* * *

**Done! Wow that took such a long time!**

**Now for questions:**

**1) Why is the phone message so important?**

**2) Will Ryoma be popular?**

**3) Why exactly did Ryoma save Hikari?**

**4) Who will Ryoma end up with?**

**-This will only be answered if you review and vote!**

**So VOTE! & REVIEW!**


	4. Who Are You Ryoma Echizen?

**Happy New Years!**

**Longest Chapter EVER!**

**This took me a long time to write but I'm so happy I got so many reviews!**

**To TheDemonicAngelOfTheCrystals: Thank you! Not everyone knows that she beat Sasabe. Just the people in Ryoma's English and Science class.**

**To senshiHg: Thanks so much for the long review! I know making all her housemates fall in love with her would be so cliche! Yeah I reread it and I realized I did that alot, I was having a writers block. I am counting all of the votes for pairings.**

**To BadyGuz: I hate Sasabe too! He will get but that's for another time. *gives a Fuji smile***

**To ErzaScarlet14: Thanks so much for the compliments! You answered all of my questions! Yay! Ryo-chan won't be weak. But she will have her emotional moments because it was pretty tough on her. **

**To Meg L.H: Thanks so much! You answered all of my questions! As for the incident well you get some info in this chapter and some in others!**

**Poll & Review Results: **

**AtoRyo- 6 votes total**

**YukiRyo- 18 votes total**

**FujiRyo****- 14 votes total**

**TezuRyo****- 5 votes total**

**AkaRyo****- 8 votes total**

**SanaRyo****- 3 votes total**

**ShishiRyo****- 1 vote total**

**OotoriRyo****- 1 vote total**

**YuutaRyo- 3 votes total**

**OT5- 1 vote total**

**OT6- 1 vote total**

**You can vote as many times as you want so keep voting so far the Sensual Pair leads! I will probably close the poll at either chapter 6 or chapter 8! So vote!**

**Now for the Disclaimer!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own PoT. I do own my OCs though!**

* * *

At Shinsei Gakuen no teacher is scarier than the third year's English sensei, Ms. Kowai. To the average passerby she was a polite, sweet lady with a nice smile, but to all the students she was the devil incarnate. She had incredibly tough tests, crazy homework assignments and was strict beyond belief. In her class no one was suppose to be late, or bored but above all else no one was allowed to sleep in class. In her opinion class was a place for learning, NOT sleeping. Because of this everyone knew not to sleep in class, everyone except for the new transfer.

"Now then, open your books to page 55. Echizen-san please read page 55," Ms. Kowai ordered. Silence met her order. "Echizen-san?" she questioned looking up from her writing. She looked to the back of her class and there she was. Ryoma Echizen, her new transfer student that just came TODAY was sleeping. Normally she would cut the new student a break since it was her first day but sleeping in her class was UNEXCEPTABLE. Turning to said student she picked up the chalk and threw it at the young girl.

To her, and everyone's surprise, the sleeping girl, picked up her notebook at hit the piece of chalk back at the board, while being half asleep. But as luck would have it this girl did not merely hit the piece back but serve it back with enough force that when it hit the board it shattered. Another silence filled the room.

"Mada mada dane, sensei. All you needed to do was say 'please wake up'," the cocky first year said. Everyone's heads whipped back to see, the once sleeping first year standing with the textbook in her hands.

Glaring slightly at her newest student, "Well then since you have decided so graciously to wake up please read pages 55 and 60 Echizen-san." Expecting the student to apologize and sit back down or at least start stuttering and begin reading Ms. Kowai felt a smirk rise to her face. However for the third time today she got a surprise.

The cocky, golden-eyed girl began reading in flawless English, "Now for poems by one of the most well known poets in America, Robert Frost. In this first piece he writes about how everything changes in _Nothing Gold Can Stay:_

_Nature's first green is gold,_

_Her hardest hue to hold._

_Her early leaf's a flower;_

_But only so an hour._

_Then leaf subsides to leaf._

_So Eden sank to grief,_

_So dawn goes down to day._

_Nothing gold can stay._

This short poem confronts the…." Ryoma continued over two more poems and analyses of them before she hit the bottom of page 60. Looking up she glanced at the teacher and read the board. "Excuse me sensei but you spelled read wrong. It is not R-E-D but R-E-A-D. It sounds the same but the meanings are quite different. It's a common mistake." 'For second graders' she added mentally.

Ms. Kowai blushed in shame and embarrassment, 'How can I let a first year talk back to me!' But before she could respond, Ryoma was fast asleep, again. The entire class watched their newest addition awe, this morning she beat Sasabe, and saved Ritana-san and during class she broke a piece of chalk while she was asleep, mocked the teacher, spoke in flawless English and bested the teacher. Many people in the class had trouble deciding if Ryoma was amazing or just down right cocky.

* * *

"All right minna that is all for today. Echizen-chan you may go to your classes with the 2nd years," the science teacher, Takanori-sensei said. In the end Kowai-sensei just let Ryoma sleep for the rest of the class. She said, "It is Echizen-san's choice to sleep in class but she will definitely not do well on her exams because she squanders her time." The truth was she just did not want to be embarrassed further by the first year.

Takanori-sensei was a bit better than Kowai-sensei because he let the cat-like girl sleep for the most part. However he too did not want to be disrespected so he called upon the sleeping first year. Since he did not throw chalk at her she reacted a bit better but she did correct some of the he had written. The correction was greeted with, "Ah, arigato Echizen-chan. Everyone please take note of Echizen-chan's correction, she understands the importance of each formula which could be the difference between something smelling sweet and something exploding."

Upon hearing her name called the sleeping girl awoke and packed her materials. Walking to the door she bowed, "Arigato minna-san" and walked out. She pulled out her schedule and began walking to her math class.

* * *

Ryoma had finally reached class 2-E when she heard yelling.

"Sensei, may I greet our new student!" asked a loud voice.

"Baka, you'll scare the first year away" another voice hissed.

"What was that Mamushi?" roared the loud voice.

"You heard me Momoshiri!" the other voice retorted.

'Maybe, I won't go in' she thought to herself and began to turn away. However the sensei took that moment to open the door.

"Echizen-chan? Oh good, you're here! I hope you didn't have too much trouble getting here," the kind sensei said pulling the youth closer. "I am Sakara Yuuko. It is nice to have you in class 2-E. I know some of the kids in here many seem a bit frightening but they are all good kids. After you have Math and Language Arts you will have lunch but after lunch you will head to your first year class."

Ryoma just nodded, she was getting a bit sleepy again. Sakara-sensei took this as the girl was agreed with her but she was extremely shy. 'I'm so lucky to have such a kawaii first year in my class!'

Sakara-sensei stood in front of the class and yelled, "Quite down!" The class *****read: Momoshiro and Kaido* continued to argue and yell. "Momoshiro-kun, Kaido-kun stop arguing this instant or I will give both of you detention," Sakara-sensei said looking slightly upset. The two rivals instantly shut up and sat down, they would miss tennis practice if they got detention and they didn't even want to try to explain why to Tezuka-buchou.

"Now then, I have absolutely wonderful news!" she said clapping. "Our new transfer student is here. She is a first year but she has Math and Language Arts with us and English and Science with the third years. Now everyone please be kind to her," she finished, motioning to Ryoma.

Ryoma stepped in and bowed to the class, "Watashi wa Echizen Ryoma. Yoroshiku onegaishimasu." Normally she would have said more but she was still a bit tired so she kept it short.

"Arigato Echizen-chan. Your seat is by Kirihara-san," she said smiling to the small girl. The sleepy girl walked over to the only open desk and took a seat.

"Konichiwa Echizen-chan. My name is Kirihara Akaya" smiled a boy with seaweed like hair.

"Konichiwa Kirihara-senpai" she yawned. She set her head down on the table and almost immediately she fell asleep. Kirihara just looked at the girl in amazement, How could she just fall asleep while the teacher was talking? Looking back up he saw that that Sakara-sensei was about to ask a question. So he decided to be a good senpai and help his kouhai.

Something was disturbing Ryoma's peaceful slumber. Something-no correction, someone was trying to wake her up. Refusing to submit to the annoying person's prodding she snuggled deeper into the hard surface of her desk. "Echizen-san. Echizen-san, wake up!" a voice pleaded quietly. Ryoma mumbled and incoherent answer and burrowed further into her arms. The annoying person sighed worriedly; he needed to wake her up before Sakara-sensei saw her.

Ryoma felt something poking her repeatedly in an attempt to draw her from the chains of sleep. She was thoroughly annoyed so she decided to wake up a little bit.

Without opening her eyes she growled, "If you keep poking me I will bite you."

The annoying person blinked at the sleeping girl. She sounded so deadly but she was so kawaii! So despite the warning he poked her cheek again.

Ryoma felt the poke and because she was so fed up with this annoying person she did exactly what she promised, she bit him.

"ITAI!" screamed Kirihara. "She bit me! SHE BIT ME!" Everyone turned around to see Kirihara Akaya jumping up and down holding his finger. Everyone except for the girl who committed the act because she was sleeping.

"Kirihara-kun I need you to calm down. You are disrupting the class now please go outside," Sakara-sensei told him. She was upset that one of her students was disrupting her class again.

Kirihara just stared at her in silence. She was mad at him for disrupting the class when the new transfer student just bit him. Sakara-sensei saw him not moving, "Why are you just standing there? I told you to go outside!" The poor second-year ace just hung his head and walked outside, there was no use arguing with her when she was upset. Before he left he glared at the still sleeping cat-like girl, 'This was all her fault!'

Seeing the second-year ace leave the class returned their attention to the teacher. All of them dismissed the sleeping first year that seemed to be the cause of this chaos.

* * *

Ryoma had continued to sleep all during class. She had already learned this unit before she left for America so it wasn't a problem. In fact the second year teachers did not even seem to see Ryoma. She was never called on during Math for Language Arts and she continued to sleep blissfully.

However after Language Arts she had lunch. That isn't a problem for Ryoma, the problem is, is that she had to get up first. Looking at how she was reluctant to do so during class it seems like she needed a lot of help.

"Hey, first year wake up!" a loud over friendly voice shouted. The sleepy girl grumbled and stuck her head deeper into her arms. For the second time today someone was trying to wake her up.

"Go away" she grumbled quietly.

"Nope. Now c'mon first year. We have to go to lunch," the voice responded poking her cheek.

"I'm not allowed to talk to strangers," she said in a futile attempt to make the person leave.

The voice began to laugh, "I like you Echizen. My name is Momoshiro Takeshi, but you can call me Momo-chan-senpai."

Ryoma lifted her head slightly and responded, "I think I'll just call you Momo-senpai."

"You're being uncute gaki. C'mon we it's lunchtime. I'll even introduce you to my friends" he said, picking up the sleeping first year. Momo continued to walk towards the canteen and ignore the muffled protests of the tired girl. For the first few minutes Ryoma kept trying to get her senpai to leave her alone or at least put her down but it was all to no avail.

As they were walking the many students in the hall waved to the tall boy and commented about how cute his new captive was. This only ticked off the first year more. After about 8 more comments on her cuteness Ryoma tried to kick her way out of Seigaku's Trickster's hold. However this plan failed due to some technical difficulties *read: she was wearing a skirt*. Seeing no way out of this the girl resigned herself to being carried.

* * *

"And she bit me! Yukimura-buchou she bit me!" wailed a green eyed second year. The baby of Rikkaidai was sitting next to his captain and telling him all about the crazy demon chibi he had to sit next to in class. The sadistic captain was clearly amused by his kouhai's action but couldn't help but wonder who caused him to act like this.

"She bit me and then Sakara-sensei sent me outside! It wasn't even my fault! It was that crazy demon chibi! She made my finger bleed" Kirihara continued even louder, gaining the attention of all the regulars at their table. His outburst caused various reactions among the regulars.

Oishi and Ootori began to fret. 'What if he damaged his hand? What if this is the beginning of bullying' the pair thought, becoming increasingly more worried with each thought.

The two data masters, Inui and Yanagi began to absorb the interesting and useful data. Inui muttered a quick, "Ii, data" before taking down Kirihara's outburst.

Niou, Marui, Mukahi and Kikumaru began to laugh at their kouhai. This was the funniest thing their kouhai had done in the past 2 months.

Kawamura and Jackal just tried to calm down the poor second year and stop the laughter of the others.

Kaidou, Shishido, Oshitari and Hiyoshi just watched the scene and stared, 'My teammates are so weird.' Kaidou let out an "Fshh", Hiyoshi a "Gekokujou", Shishido just sighed and Oshitari simply pushed up his glasses and went back to their lunch or conversation.

Jirou was sleeping again, so he was oblivious to it all. The boy had already finished lunch and he just fell asleep afterwards.

Tezuka, Sanada and Yagyuu stared at the scene in front of them stoically. This type of chaos was commonplace among their regulars.

Fuji and Yukimura watched and smiled in amusement, albeit a bit sadistically. The two of them liked to watch the chaos around them unfold and if it wasn't amusing enough to watch they decided to 'lend a hand' *read: they added to the chaos by causing someone a bit of fear or pain*.

What none of the regulars seemed to notice was that three of their members were missing. They knew Atobe and Kabaji were helping their principal and no one seemed to know where Momo was.

While the others were watching/participating/adding to the situation, only about 4 people saw one of their missing members walk in with an additional person.

"Ohayou minna-san!" Momo boomed. Everyone turned to stare at one of their missing players. When they took a good look at Momo they noticed something a bit different.

"Momo, who are you carrying and why" asked Oishi, a bit stunned. In truth all but two of the regulars were stunned. Momo because he had brought Ryoma with him to meet his friends since she seemed like such an interesting person and because he thought she had no friends. Fuji because he had managed to catch a glimpse of the poor girl's face and he knew why his kouhai had brought her with him.

Momo smiled, "I brought a friend to eat with us. I thought she didn't have any friends and I didn't want her to eat alone."

"Senpai, now that you have brought me to meet your friends can you please set me down," Ryoma asked, slightly upset that she was still over her senpai's shoulder.

Momo set the irritated first year down on the ground and slapped her on the back, "Now, now Echizen no need to be so upset."

Ryoma stared blankly at him, and raised an eyebrow. "Senpai, you carried me over your shoulder to meet people I don't know without even talking to me to see if I had friends."

Momo rubbed the back of his neck, now that she said it, it did sound kind of weird. "Gomen Echizen. It's just I wanted you to have a fun first day, it's not everyday we get a transfer."

At the word transfer, Kirihara's head shot up from its place on the table. He whirled around to see the crazy demon chibi. "You" he shouted. Ryoma turned her gaze on the semi-familiar green-eyed boy and regarded him coolly, "Yes?"

"You're the crazy demon chibi who bit me during class!" he said angrily.

Then it hit Ryoma, 'He was the person trying to wake me during class.' "I believe I warned you not to touch me," she retorted angry at the chibi remark. Then chaos broke out again, resulting with some of the regulars bursting out laughing, some fretting, some sighing, some trying to calm the others down, some smiling in amusement, some recording data and some staring stoically at the mess this girl had just started. Said girl, was sighing and looking at the people at the table, each of them were wearing similar jackets. Some said Rikkaidai, while some said Hyotei and the rest read Seigaku but each of them had Shinsei-Tennis written under the name. 'These must be the regulars' she thought. She was about to confirm her thought when a voice resounded through the hall.

"Ryoma!" a feminine voice shouted. Everyone stopped to turn towards the noise. Ryoma turned towards the voice and got hit by a flying pink blur. "I was looking all over for you! I wanted to thank you properly for defending me and beating Sasabe," the pink haired girl said hugging the golden-eyed troublemaker.

Ryoma smiled at the older girl and smiled, "It was nothing Hikari-chan. I am just happy that I helped someone." Only a few people heard the strange emotion at the end of her sentence.

The regulars froze when they heard the two girls' conversation. Nearly all of them had seen the match between the mysterious boy and Sasabe, and the ones that didn't heard about it from the others. The young boy who beat Sasabe so easily was really a girl? Moreover she was a first year? "Sugoi! Ochibi is a girl," Kikumaru said jumping on the unsuspecting first year.

"Who…..are you…..calling….Ochibi" asked the captive girl. Ryoma was quickly losing oxygen and in desperate need of freedom. Hikari chuckled at Ryoma's face, she could tell the younger girl was upset at being called Ochibi.

"Eiji! Let Echizen-san go! You're suffocating her" Seigaku's fukubuchou yelled prying his partner away from the now gasping girl.

"Ryoma I never knew you knew the regulars" Hikari said surprised. She knew the other girl was nice but she seemed a bit shy *read: anti-social*.

"I don't. Momo-senpai dragged me over here against my will. He says it was because he thought 'I had no friends'" Ryoma pouted. She resented that fact she may not be terribly friendly but she didn't avoid people, she just got annoyed easily. "On top of that I still don't know who these people are" she mumbled quietly.

Hikari caught the last bit and chuckled, "Ryoma-chan is too kawaii!"

Ryoma glared at her friend, "Stop calling me cute" she muttered.

Hikari continued to chuckle but turned towards the regulars, "Minna, I would like to introduce you to my friend, Echizen Ryoma." Ryoma bowed but grumbled at being introduced.

"Ryoma-chan this is Kawamura Takashi my koibito," Hikari said hugging a tall but shy looking boy. "This is…" she trailed off motioning for Seigaku's fukubuchou to introduce himself.

"Konichiwa Echizen-san. I am Oishi Shuuichirou, it's nice to meet you" said the boy who saved Ryoma earlier.

"Kikumaru Eiji! Konichiwa Ochibi nya~" the hyper red head said, glomping Ryoma AGAIN.

"Kaidou Kaoru, fshhh" a boy with a green bandana said.

"I am Ootori Choutarou" a quite boy said, smiling.

"Shishido Ryou. Konichiwa," a boy with a backwards cap nodded.

"Inui Sadaharu. Ii data" a spiky hair boy with glasses replied.

"Tezuka Kunimitsu" a stoic brunette with glasses nodded towards Ryoma.

"Mukahi Gakuto!" the laughing red head from before said.

"Oshitari Yuushi" a bluenette with glasses smiled at the golden-eyed girl.

"Hiyoshi Wakashi. Gekokujou" a brunette said bluntly.

"Renji Yanagi" a closed eyed brunette said secretly analyzing the small girl.

"I am Yukimura Seichii" a smiling bluenette said. "And this is Sanada Genichirou" he continued, pointing to a tall boy in a black cap. The tall boy bowed.

"Marui Bunta" waved a red head chewing gum.

"Yagyuu Hiroshi. Nice to meet you Echizen-san" a purple haired boy replied quite gentlemanly.

"Jackal Kuwahara. I apologize for Kirihara's actions" a Brazilian boy said.

"Niou Masaharu" a boy with white hair replied. "You bit Kirihara" he laughed.

"Who's Kirihara" asked Ryoma. Everyone sweat dropped, did she really forget the boy she bit?

"I am you crazy demon chibi!" a spidery haired boy roared. Kirihara was extremely mad, first the girl bites him, then he gets sent out because of said bite and then she forgets who he is!

"Ah! You're the person who kept trying to wake me up. Don't you know it's rude to touch people while they're sleeping" the dark haired girl scolded.

"Saa. Ryo-chan doesn't take well to people who try to wake her up while she's sleeping. Konichiwa again Ryo-chan. My name is Fuji Shuusuke just in case you forgot," a familiar smiling brunette said.

"You're the smiling senpai who tried to interrogate me during English," she frowned at the tensai.

"You remembered I'm touched. I must admit you made class quite interesting today," he smiled.

"What did she do?" Marui asked suddenly very curious.

"She used her notebook to hit a piece of chalk Kowai-sensei threw at her back at the board and it shattered. After she totally showed Kowai-sensei up during English when she read and corrected her (Kowai-sensei) spelling" Niou laughed. It turns out Niou was also in Ryoma's third year class.

"What else was I suppose to do" Ryoma asked. 'Honestly what else would I do?' she thought.

The regulars just stared in disbelief, this girl was definitely an enigma. As of today she had beaten one of the best non-regulars, bitten Kirihara, mouthed off to a teacher, showed up said teacher, managed to save one of their friends, and gain the interest of all of them.

"Now, if you don't mind, I have to go talk to Sakuno-chan. Ja ne" Ryoma said walking off.

* * *

"Game set and match. Six games to four. Echizen wins!" resounded through out the girls' tennis courts. On one side of Court A stood a petite young girl. Across from her on her knees was the Hyotei Girls' Tennis buchou.

"You….you're strong" panted the blonde captain.

The mysterious player smiled at her senpai, "Good game Akari-senpai" she responded before walking off. Normally Ryoma would have said "Mada mada dane," but not this time. Akari-senpai was good. She managed to get three games while she was using her right hand and one game while she was using her left hand, she was definitely strong. Not only that but Akari-senpai had gotten Ryoma's respect, she gave tennis her all and did not go easy on her from the start.

Akari stared at the mysterious girl's back. Echizen Ryoma was strong even if she didn't look it. Akari thought back to her first impression of the girl.

_Flashback_

"_Ne, Senpai can I have a match with you?" a cocky voice asked._

_The Hyotei captain of the girls' tennis team, Akari Mirabelle turned around, "Who are you?"_

"_I am Echizen Ryoma. You're the Hyotei girls' tennis captain right?" the petite girl asked._

"_I am. What makes you think that you have enough skill to challenge me?" the blonde captain asked looking over the cocky new girl._

"_I promise I'll put up a challenge," the mysterious girl replied._

_The emerald-eyed girl looked over the cocky first year. The girl was petite but it was clear she was mostly muscle but she had an aura about her that told Akari that she was not to be taken lightly. This girl was a mystery and perhaps that was what compelled the most powerful girl on the tennis team to agree._

Now she knew what had drawn her, it was definitely the power she had infused within her aura. Turning around she saw the crowd of tennis players that had gathered, "Minna get back to practice!"

* * *

"Ryuuzaki-sensei I would like to join the Boys' Tennis Team," a clear voice spoke.

Ryuuzaki-sensei looked at the owner of the new voice. To her surprise it was a young girl who seemed to be no older than her granddaughter. Assessing the girl she saw how petite but muscular she was. "I'm sorry but if you want to join the Girls' Tennis Team you must speak with Sakara-sensei," the Boys' Tennis coach replied.

"I would, if I wanted to play on the Girls' Tennis Team. However I want to join the Boys' Tennis Team," the short girl said again.

Ryuuzaki-sensei turned to really look at the girl there was something about her that was familiar. Taking a good look at her she saw the fire and passion that burned deep within the first year's golden eyes and she saw that she had pulled her waist length emerald tinted hair back into a ponytail. "Why do you want to join the Boys' Tennis Team? To see the cute boys run around and sweat? To catch a boyfriend?" the woman asked the child, testing her, if she saw any hesitation then she would immediately reject her.

"No. I love tennis. I want to play on a team that can keep up with me and that has skill. The Girls' Tennis Team is good but they aren't strong enough," the girl replied honestly. "Plus my oyaji said that he went to this school and he said they were still strong."

Ryuuzaki regarded the girl and for a second the girl was replaced with an image of her former student. "Despite the fact that your intentions are honest I can't just allow an untried girl become a part of the Boys' Tennis Team, you might not even become a regular. That is your intention isn't it" she asked the girl.

"Yes. I know that a girl being on the Boys' Tennis Team is unheard of but at least give me a chance to prove myself in a match. I know that you think I might be some over cocky girl but trust me I played a match against Hyotei's Girls' Tennis buchou and I defeat her. Just give me a chance against anyone of your regulars and if you still aren't impressed I will compete with the Girls' Team," Ryoma asked bowing.

Ryuuzaki-sensei was surprised, this girl had beaten the strongest girl in their school's tennis team? She mentally scolded herself, 'If she had the guts to ask to be on the Boys' Tennis Team then she must be good.' However she never guessed that she would be that good. Sighing she turned towards the girl, "Alright. I will give you one chance. You will have your match today against one of my regulars but if you are not satisfactory then you must join the Girls' Tennis Team" the coach sighed.

Ryoma lifted her face in happiness. She had gotten her chance and she was not going to waste it. "Arigato. Now who is my opponent" the small girl asked.

* * *

**(A/N: For future reference; I am going to make up some of Ryoma's moves)**

"One set match. Oshitari Yuushi versus Echizen Ryoma. Echizen to serve," Ryuuzaki-sensei called.

Ryoma gripped her racket in her right hand and tossed the ball up, _PAK_.

'Alright,' Oshitari thought. The bluenette got ready to hit it back when the ball curved towards his face. He stepped back to avoid getting it by it.

"What was that?" the spectators asked. Everyone watching looked back at the mysterious girl with a cap on her head. 'Who is this girl?' the crowd wondered.

"15-Love" Ryuuzaki-sensei called gaining everyone's attention.

Ryoma continued hitting service aces and everyone remained shocked. This time it was Oshitari's serve. However Oshitari made the mistake of going easy on her. Ryoma hit the ball back easily and glared at her senpai, "Mada mada dane senpai. Don't hold back on me."

Oshitari glanced at the girl and hit the ball back with more force. However he was still holding back and Ryoma knew that, 'I guess I'll have to make him play seriously then,' she thought to herself.

When Oshitari hit a lob Ryoma returned with a powerful spinning smash, "Mada mada dane senpai. I told you not to go easy on me. Otherwise there is no point in playing," she said hitting the ground.

"2 games to love. Echizen to serve" Ryuuzaki-sensei called. That girl was good but even more important she was trying to get him not to hold back. Furthermore her serves were impressive even professionals had a hard time learning that move. She was definitely Echizen Nanjiro's daughter.

After that comment Oshitari played seriously against her. He knew now not to take her lightly. Now the score was 4 games to 3 with Ryoma still using her right hand. By this point everyone had gathered to watch the match between the regular and the mysterious female player.

Oshitari had just hit a particularly difficult shot and it was too far for Ryoma to get when she reveled her secret, her left hand. Hitting it back so the ball dropped directly on the baseline she turned around. Everyone turned to stare at the girl, she was a southpaw! "Guess the cat's out of the bag," she said preparing for Oshitari's next serve.

"So you finally revealed it have you?" a quite voice said. Some of the people turned to see, Hyotei's Girls' Tennis buchou. "Akari-san you know Ochibi" a certain neko-like red head asked in surprise. This caught the rest of the regulars' attention.

The blonde captain shook her head, "No I don't know Echizen-san personally but I did play a match against her. I was doing pretty well until she began using her left hand." She looked at the younger girl in awe, "She beat me. Truly, she is an amazing player."

That comment stunned the regulars. Akari-san was powerful and she was even on par with some of the regulars and to think this girl, their kouhai beat her, just left some of them speechless. Inui didn't even think about that possibility when but then again Echizen Ryoma was defying all logic. Thinking this was useful he wrote down everything. Turning back to the match the regulars reconsidered their initial impression of the first year.

Everyone watched at the match continued. Ryoma gaining points and Oshitari gaining them back. No one was surprised when a game was won or when it got taken back. However when Ryoma broke his DFDR the crowd was amazed. As the two continued to play the match soon came to the final game. Tied at 5 games all this would be deciding game.

Ryoma hit her twist serve. "15-love" Ryuuzaki-sensei called. Ryoma hit another and another, "30-love," Ryuuzaki-sensei called.

Then Oshitari broke her serve, Ryoma became serious, making a mental note to work on her serve later. "30-15" Ryuuzaki-sensei called. Ryoma hit another twist and again it was broken but this time she was ready, she hit a drop volley and scored a point, "40-15." This routine continued until Oshitari lobbed it, which Ryoma returned with a cross shot Oshitari hit a volley and she returned it with a Drive B, winning the match.

"Game set and match. 6 games to 5 Echizen wins," Ryuuzaki announced. This stunned the audience, a regular lost to a first year. Walking up to the net she shook hands with Oshitari, "Arigato. You are a good opponent," she said before walking over to Ryuuzaki-sensei. The coach and the mysterious girl walked off and everyone was stunned. "Why is everyone just standing here?" a proud voice asked. "Oshitari-san just lost ," was Seigaku's buchou's response. Atobe Keigo looked at his friend incredulously, Hyotei's tensai lost "To who?"

"Echizen Ryoma. It was a good match though," Momo chimed in.

"No. She was not playing to her fully potential. She knew Oshitari had injured himself so she held back," Fuji stated.

Everyone listening stared in disbelief, she was able to beat Hyotei's tensai while holding back. 'Just who was Echizen Ryoma?' they all wondered.

* * *

Ryoma was in her new home and walking back to her room. She was incredibly Ryuuzaki-sensei had agreed to let her on the team and let her be a regular. However, she had to disguise herself as a boy, which was fine she didn't want to wear a tennis skirt anyway. Since she was allowed in she spent the rest of practice filling out the forms she needed to.

As she approached the door Ryoma opened her cell phone.

_1 New Text Message_

Opening it Ryoma saw it was from her mother,

_Ryoma, _

_I need to talk to you now. Please call me back it's urgent!_

Frowning at it she dialed her mother's number.

"Hello?" the young girl asked in English.

"Ryoma? Oh thank goodness you called me back I was getting worried!" her mother cried.

"I'm ok. What did you want to talk to me about?" Ryoma sighed, her mother was such a worrywart.

"It's about the trail" Rinko said softly. Those words caused Ryoma to freeze with her hand on the doorknob.

"No," Ryoma whispered almost inaudibly. Gathering her courage she spoke again but this time it was a bit louder, "What about it?"

"It's…Well two of the men who kidnapped you, they….they escaped" the mother responded worried about her only daughter.

"No…no. I was promised they wouldn't get out. I was promised they wouldn't get out" Ryoma said shaking.

"Ryoma," her mother cried. She got no response, "Ryoma! Baby, I know. I know, but they won't be able to find you and they won't be able to get anyone else without their 3 partners. They will be found. They won't be able to lay a hand on you" she said trying to calm her traumatized daughter.

"No. You don't know that. You don't know that" Ryoma screamed her mind flying back to the horrible experiences.

"Ryoma! Stop it! Stop thinking about it! You're not that girl anymore. You know what they look like and you know how to protect yourself! Get a grip. Being scared is letting them win! Don't let them win" a new voice yelled at her.

"Aniki" she whispered. Ryoga smiled he had reached her.

"That's right Ryo-chan. Don't let them win" a kind voice reached her ears.

"Kelly," Ryoma whispered at her old friend's voice.

"Ryo. Don't give up. You are stronger than that" a deep voice broke into her mind.

"Joel," Ryoma breathed returning from the memories.

"Baka Ryoma! If you give in I'll never forgive you!" a familiar voice yelled at her.

"Kevin," she breathed releasing her mind from the painfully memories.

"Shoujo! What are you doing? I have never known you to let something like this rule you," a gruff voice mocked her. "Are you going to start now?"

Getting a grip on herself Ryoma swallowed her fear, "Of course not! Baka oyaji!"

After a few more words and promises to write Ryoma bid her friends and family good night. She walked into her room to take a shower, and wait for dinner, Sayaka said she would be making dinner for everyone tonight. She would also finally get to meet her housemates.

Little did Ryoma know that her entire conversation was overheard by one of her housemates.

'Who are you Echizen Ryoma' he thought before heading to his room.

* * *

**Done! Yay!**

**Wow super long!**

**1) Who heard Ryoma's conversation?**

**2) How will dinner with her housemates go?**

**3) What happened during the incident?**

**Please Review and Please vote!**


	5. The Dinner

**Yay! The Dinner Chapter! **

**This one is a bit shorter because I was having a writers' block but I hope you love it!**

**To 10-iz4: No Ryoma doesn't know but she'll take it in stride.**

**To Meg L.H: 1) Yes it was planned.**

**2) Possibly but later on in the story.**

**To senshiHg: Thank you! **

**To MintLeafeon: Thank you! Ryoma won't be mad about being called cute, Will you Ryoma-chan?**

**Ryoma: Of course I-(sees my face). N-n-no. I'm not mad.**

**To IceDragon21: Yes poor Akaya is being bit.**

**To little prince ryo: I will go more into detail about the incident later.**

**To ErzaScarlet14: Thank you so much!**

**The Polls So Far:**

**Sensual: 19**

**Thrill: 15**

**Pillar: 7**

**Royal:9**

**Brat: 8**

**SanaRyo: 3**

**Otouto (YuutaRyo): 5**

**ShishiRyo: 1**

**OhtoriRyo: 1**

**OT5: 1**

**OT6: 1**

**So far Sensual is winning! I'm closing the poll during chapter 7! Please keep voting! Vote as many times as you want! Don't forget to review to!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own PoT. If I did I wouldn't be writing this.**

* * *

"Ryo~ma~chan!" a peppy voice called.

The girl in questioned turned towards her door. She was in the middle of composing a new violin piece that she wanted to present to the music club when she interrupted and was upset someone interrupted her. "Nani?" the cat-eyed girl asked the 27-year-old.

"I came up here to remind you that everyone is having dinner together tonight," the bluenette responded cheerfully. Sayaka looked down at what the young girl was wearing, "You're going to wear _that_! Why? You need to wear something cute! This is your first time meeting them!" she shrieked.

Ryoma looked down at her outfit of cut-off jean shorts and silver camisole and frowned, "What's wrong with this? What else would I wear? A dress?" she asked sarcastically. Unlike Sayaka, Ryoma only wore super girl stuff during important things, like parties and she felt this was fine for dinner.

Sakaya grinned evilly at the girl, "Ryo~ma~chan! This is a very important day. You're meeting your new housemates after all! So let's go dress you in something nice!" The 27-year-old dragged the teenager into her (Ryoma's) closet. Sayaka was grinning happily because she loved to dress the first-year up like a doll. Ryoma was groaning because all she wanted to do was practice her violin, play tennis, draw, play with Karupin and drink Ponta.

"Ne Ryoma, why don't you wear this?" Sayaka suggested holding up a monstrosity *read: super frilly, lacey and sparkly short pink dress*. Ryoma looked at her friend like she was crazy, "If I wear that some people are going to die during dinner."

Sayaka sweat-dropped, she knew the golden-eyed girl would say that. "Then what about this one?" she asked holding up a fluffy yellow dress.

"Is there someone in this house you want dead?" the tennis champion questioned.

Sayaka sighed, "You leave me with no choice Ryoma." The older bluenette pushed the smaller girl back into the bedroom sat her on the bed and ran back into the 15-year-old's closet. "I'm picking out your outfit and you are going to wear it whether you like it or not!" the sky eyed girl called out over her shoulder.

Ryoma raised her eyebrow, 'Sayaka can try to make me wear whatever she wants but I can just hide out till dinner,' she thought to herself. Ryoma was use to being a dress up doll but that didn't mean she liked it or that she wore the outfit in the end. When she was younger her mother loved to dress the poor tomboy up in frilly, lacey, cutesy dresses and take pictures of her in them or take her to parties dressed like that. Due to these horrifying experiences Ryoma had developed a plan for such emergencies.

_Ryoma's Safety Precautions Section 1-3_

_1) Avoid such emergencies_

_2) Reject all ideas_

_3) Bribe aniki to save me_

_4) Beg friend/s to save me_

_5) Blackmail oyaji to save me_

_6) Create a distraction *read: Tell kaa-san about oyaji's hentai magazines*_

_7) Hide_

Clearly since Ryoma was in Japan without her family and friends she had to discard options 1-6. However option 7 was still usable; she just had to find a place to hide. 'My room is no good. The kitchen and other common places are out to. Sayaka would see me run outside so I can't do that so where else is there?' she thought to herself. Then it hit her; 'I have housemates here so I can hide in an empty room or with one of them!' The young girl grabbed a jacket and her red Fila hat pushed her hair up into it and slowly crept out onto her balcony. The first-year stepped on the railing and climbed up onto a ledge that ran around the house. 'It's a good thing that this house has a lot of ledges, moldings and windows' the escapee thought. She looked around and saw an open window to her left. After adjusting her hat she crept over to the window and peered in. Inside she saw some slightly familiar boys gathered in a very large room.

_Knock Knock Knock_ brought the attention of a silver haired trickster to the window. "Buchou! There's someone at the window!" the amused boy called to his captain. "Niou I think you need to work on your Japanese!" a cheerful redhead yelled at his friend as he continued his video game. Kikumaru was currently in a very intense game against Mukahi, Marui and Kirihara and the winner paid for their desserts at the café the teams were gong to tomorrow.

Niou turned to his energetic friends amused, "There's nothing wrong with my Japanese Eiji. There's a person at the window. I think he wants to be let in.." This made everyone turn to the window and sure enough there was someone at the window. Yukimura got up and opened the window bring the 'boy' in. "Arigato senpai," the 'boy' said.

"Nya! You look like Ochibi!" Kikumaru exclaimed glomping the 'boy'.

"Who's Ochibi" the confused cap wearer asked.

"Well Ochibi is-" he began.

"Kikumaru! You lost!" Mukahi yelled at his rival.

"Nani? How?" he exclaimed surprised.

"You left in the middle of our game. So you lost" Kirihara exclaimed with a grin.

Kikumaru hung his head in sadness, he had just gotten his allowance yesterday. 'My wallet is going to be anorexic!' he cried internally.

"Anyway, why were you outside the window?" Yukimura asked. Suddenly all the attention returned to their new guest.

"Well, I'm the boarder here and I had to escape," Ryoma replied.

"From what?" Marui asked the mysterious visitor.

"There is a monster in my closet who wants to torture me *read: Sayaka is in my closet and wants to use me as a dress up doll*," Ryoma responded bluntly. Everyone in the room except for the two stoics sweat dropped.

"But using the window to scale the house is dangerous! Why didn't you use the door?" questioned the concerned mother hen of Seigaku. Oishi's head was whirling with all the things that could have happened to the short 'boy'.

"If I used the door she would have caught me," Ryoma responded. "I can hide here right?" she asked looking around the room.

"Sure. I guess since you're our new housemate we should introduce ourselves," Yukimura smiled. "I am Yukimura Seiichi, third-year at-."

"There's no need to introduce yourselves. I know who you are," Ryoma interrupted. 'Did they forget who I am already?' she asked herself.

"How? Are you a stalker?" Kirihara asked fearfully. All the regulars shuddered, each one of them has had a stalker and it was very traumatic.

"No I'm not a-" Ryoma began.

"Nya! Oishi Ochibi 2 is a stalker!" Kikumaru exclaimed jumping on his doubles partner.

"I am not a STALKER!" Ryoma yelled. Kikumaru stopped, his voice sounded very familiar.

"Then how do you know our names?" Marui asked.

"And why does your voice sound so familiar?" Niou interrupted.

"Well-" Ryoma stopped. Her eyes grew wide and she ran towards the closet, "She's coming! I was never here!"

The regulars stare at the closet door curiously. What did 'he' mean by 'she's coming'? They were about to go and open the closet door when the main door swung open. The tennis players turned to see their guardian/supervisor standing at the door looking livid and a bit tired.

Seeing their shocked and slightly frightened looks Sayaka smiled gently, "I heard my neko-chan yell and I've come to get my adorable neko-chan." The 11 people in the room froze in fear well all except Yukimura, Tezuka, Sanada and Akutagawa. Tezuka and Sanada didn't because they had to deal with Fuji and Yukimura, respectively, all the time. Yukimura didn't because in his opinion Sayaka was harmless, so he chuckled in amusement. Akutagawa didn't either because he was sleeping, again.

"Ano, Sayaka-chan who is neko-chan?" Oshitari asked politely.

"You'll see," she said quietly. "Because if NEKO-CHAN doesn't come out soon I'll call Rinko-chan!" she continued loudly.

"There's no need to call kaa-san," Ryoma came out. She was extremely nervous because if Sayaka called her mother, her mother would find out that she hadn't worn the dress she had gotten for her.

"I won't call Rinko-chan IF you wear what I've picked out for you," Sayaka smiled again.

Ryoma grumbled unhappily, "Fine." With that Sayaka pulled Ryoma out of the room with a satisfied smile on her face.

"Can someone tell me what just happened?" Marui asked his teammates.

* * *

"C'mon! Sayaka-chan made dinner for us!" Kirihara yelled heading down the stairs with his fellow housemates. Niou, Oishi, Mukahi and Inui also headed down with them. Tezuka, Sanada, Yukimura, Marui and Niou were studying for a science and music final they were having while Oishi, Kikumaru, Oshitari and Mukahi were finishing their English project. Inui and Kaidoh were out training whilst Akutagawa and Kirihara were coming up with ideas on how to get rid of stalkers.

"I smell strawberry shortcake!" Marui exclaimed jumping down the stairs. However he was jumping and getting enough speed that he hurled himself towards the couch. He was smart so instead of crashing into the couch like some people would have *read: Kirihara* he jumped over it and ended up sitting right next to a sleeping girl.

A scream resounded through the house and the regulars ran down the stairs to see if their friend was all right.

"Are you ok Marui?" Oishi asked concerned.

"I think this person is dead!" Marui screamed. Everyone's eyes widened (and yes I mean everyone) as the turned to see the 'dead girl'.

"Unya! A dead person!" Kikumaru screamed jumping on Oishi.

"Minna I don't think she's dead," Oishi said quietly, trying to calm his doubles partner down. Tezuka, Inui, Sanada and Yukimura, whom had already guessed as they saw the girl's eyes twitch, were the only ones who heard his observation. Everyone else continued talking while the others respectively rubbed the bridges of their noses, took data, and watched closely in amusement.

"I dare you to touch her," Marui whispered to Kirihara.

"There's no way he'll do it," Mukahi taunted Kirihara.

"Kowai! Oishi she's dead! What if she turns into a ghost!" Kikumaru continued to wail.

Akutagawa, who was actually awake for once, turned to Oshitari and whispered, "Ne senpai. Isn't that the girl we met this morning?"

"Minna" Oishi said trying to get their attention again.

"Yes. I wonder what she's doing here?" Oshitari answered his kouhai.

"10 bucks says that he'll touch her," Niou whispered to Mukahi.

"10 bucks says he won't," Mukahi responded.

"Ano, minna" Oishi said a bit louder.

"There is 99% chance that they won't listen," Inui told his fukubuchou.

Kaidoh looked at his teammates and rolled his eyes, "If she's dead then why do they want to touch her?" he muttered. Kaidoh believed that as a principle if you saw a dead body you don't touch it. He was about to yell at his teammates when he saw a cat run into the kitchen. Seeing as he was the only one who saw this he ran after it.

Tezuka and Sanada missed their kouhai run into the kitchen and sighed. 'Why do they think she's dead. And more importantly why do they want to touch a dead body?' they thought to themselves.

"Fine! I'll touch her!" the second-year ace yelled in exasperation.

Mukahi, Marui and Niou were teasing him and making chicken noises so he had to accept the dare. He looked down at the 'dead' girl, she was wearing a light blue halter dress that went down to her knees and she had a blue bow in her emerald tinted hair. The bow could barely be seen because of the red and white Fila cap she had on. 'Gomen shinin-san **(1)**. Please don't haunt me!' he thought to himself.

Kirihara bent down and poked the 'dead' girl on her cheek. He didn't except the pain that came afterwards.

"Itai! Itai!" he screamed hiding behind Niou. He had been bitten again.

"Shinin-san bit Kirihara!" Marui and Kikumaru screamed. The two turned towards each other and came to the same conclusion, "Kirihara is going to turn into a zombie!"

The people who were already aware that the girl was alive sighed, took down more data and watch in amusement, respectively.

"Minna, she's alive," Oishi said loudly. For once Oishi was shouting which came as a surprise since Oishi never shouts. Some looked at him in surprise and the others did what they had been doing the whole time.

"No way. She's a shinin Oishi!" Kikumaru insisted.

Yukimura who had been watching this whole time laughed. "She's only sleeping Eiji. Here, I'll wake her up," he said bending down towards the sleeping tennis champion. Leaning close to his face he lightly kissed the sleeping first-year's lips. "Wakey, wakey Ryo~chan" he said pulling away.

Everyone stared at Rikkaidai's captain in surprise. Tezuka and Sanada had their mouths slightly dropped, Inui stopped taking data, Oishi and Kirihara were on the verge of fainting, Kikumaru, Mukahi, Marui, Oshitari and Akutagawa had their mouths hanging down and their eyes bulging out, and Niou was laughing. No one had expected the usually kind but responsible captain to just lean down and kiss a random girl.

"Buchou…why would you just kiss some random girl?" Kirihara asked still stunned.

"She's not just some random girl, she's Echizen Ryoma," Yukimura answered smiling.

Kirihara was about to respond when the girl in question woke up. "What happened?" she asked. The regulars turned to see the slightly sleepy first-year rubbed her eyes.

Kikumaru noticed his favorite first-year was awake and glomped her, "Yukimura stole your innocence!"

Ryoma struggled to breathe and looked at her senpai incredulously, "Kikumaru-senpai are you feeling ok?"

"Yup!" he said cheerfully, "You should call me Eiji Ochibi!"

"Ano, Kikumaru-senpai…..can you…please…let me…..go" Ryoma continued to gasp.

"Eiji! She's turning purple!" Oishi yelled prying his partner off of his kouhai.

"Wah! Gomen Ochibi!" he cried. "You should call me Eiji though!"

"Fine," Ryoma sighed. Eiji continued to look at her expectantly, "Nani?"

"You said you would!" the acrobat wailed.

"Fine, Eiji-senpai," Ryoma said grudgingly.

"Ryo-chan is so kawaii, ne?" a certain sadistic captain said.

"Minna! Dinner's ready!" Sayaka cried from the kitchen.

"Yay!" Eiji and Ryoma yelled running to the living room.

Everyone was either watching in amusement or still frozen in surprise. They stayed like that before they ran to the kitchen because Eiji alone can eat for 6 people but if their hunch was right Ryoma could eat just as much.

* * *

"Arigato for the meal Sayaka-chan!" the tennis champion said happily. The 9 housemates, 4 guests and one guardian had just eaten enough food to feed a small city. The only things left to eat were 4 large cakes that everyone could smell.

"Your welcome Ryo-chan. Can you help me pass out the cakes," the guardian replied. The two got up and brought back the 4 cakes. They began to cut the cakes and hand them out.

"This is the best cake you've ever made Sayaka-chan!" Marui said with his mouth full.

"Don't speak with your mouth full," Sanada admonished his teammate. "He is right though. This cake is excellent," he said towards the smiling 27-year-old. The rest of the boys nodded in agreement, too full of cake to talk.

"You boys are so sweet, but I didn't make this cake," Sayaka smiled.

The boys looked shocked. None of them could bake this well and Sayaka was the only one who could bake something remotely similar.

"Then who…." Mukahi trailed off.

"Mada mada dane senpai-tachi," a soft voice smirked.

The boys turned to see their newest kouhai smirking at them in amusement. They looked at Sayaka and back to the younger girl.

"You look like you've never seen a girl who can bake."

"The evil demon chibi made this!" Kirihara exclaimed.

Ryoma twitched and glared at the 'Devil', "What did you call me seaweed head?"

"Well you are!" he shouted shakily. "You've bitten me two times in one day!"

"What are you talking about I've only bitten you once" Ryoma responded confused.

"You bit me when we were trying to wake you up in the living room!" he yelled. 'How can she forget who she bites!' he thought to himself.

Sayaka looked at her two youngest boarders and laughed, "Ryoma. It isn't nice to bite people."

"He deserves it! He called me a chibi!" Ryoma glared *read: pouted*. Her height has always been a sore subject for her considering all her family and friends were taller than her.

"I was only trying to be nice to you gaki!" the 'devil' glared at the 'prince'. Their glaring contest continued until Oshitari decided to ask the question on nearly everyone's mind.

"Not to be rude but what are you doing here Echizen-san?" a bespectacled bluenette asked. The other boys except Kirihara, who was still having his glaring contest, looking towards the glaring girl in curiosity.

"I told you guys earlier, I'm your new housemate. Mada mada dane," she whispered the last part.

"Earlier, you mean?" Jirou said shocked. He thought the cat-like boy was a bit too feminine but he didn't think 'he' was Ryoma.

Ryoma chuckled at the shocked faces of her senpais. "Yes. I am the boy who sunk into the room through the window."

After a few moments of shocked silence Eiji shouted, "Yay! More time with Ochibi!"

"Iie data," Inui spoke, coming out of his shock.

"Fshh" Kaidoh sighed. It was going to be troublesome but at least Karupin was staying. 'Maybe I'll finally have someone to talk to about cats' he thought.

"If Ryoma-chan lives with us," Marui began. "That means more cake!" Jirou finished beaming at his idol.

"How interesting," Oshitari smiled.

Sanada and Tezuka sighed, 'More chaos' they thought to themselves.

"We are so coming over more often" Niou and Mukahi said smiling at the thought of all the food and fun they could have.

Oishi looked at the short girl worriedly, 'Will she be ok?'

Kirihara who had just pulled himself from his trance and screamed "NOOOOO!"

Yukimura looked at his newfound housemate with a smile, 'You are definitely an enigma Echizen Ryoma.'

* * *

**Yay! Done!**

**The chapter was short but the next will be longer!**

**1) Why did Yukimura kiss Ryoma?**

**2) What does living with Ryoma mean for the regulars?**

**3) Why do I keep abusing Akaya?**

**4) Who heard Ryoma on the phone?**

**All these questions will be answered later in the story. So please review!**


	6. Enter: Atobe and Yuuta

**I'm back! **

**I know I've been away for a really long time and I'm so sorry! Sadly my writer's block isn't completely gone.**

**Sadly there isn't that much of Akaya abuse. But there is Atobe and Yuuta in there!**

**To akitty: Sorry. Only three votes per review. Nice catch though so just for you I'm gonna give Thrill Pair 9 votes.**

**To senshiHg: Yeah he kind of was. Let's just say that at that moment he wanted to see what would happen.**

**To DaPurpleDino: Thank you. It didn't really go away though. About the Inui thing; he and Kaidoh went outside and then they came back in to eat dinner. Inui multiplying himself...*SCREAM* **

**Note to Everyone reading: In one of the previous chapters I named everyone in the house.**

**The Poll Results:**

**Sensual:**** 35**

**Thrill:**** 30**

**Cap:**** 7**

**Brat:**** 14**

**Otouto:**** 9**

**Sleepy:**** 1**

**OT6:**** 3**

**OT5:**** 3**

**Pillar:**** 9**

**Royal:**** 17**

**Ohotori:**** 2**

**Shishido:**** 2**

**I love you all for reviewing my chapter and voting!**

**Next chapter is going to be much better.**

**Me: Now for the Disclaimer...RYOMA!**

**Ryoma: What? I was in the middle of baking a cake!**

**Me: Do the disclaimer. And give all the reviewers some cake.**

**Ryoma: *twitch* And why should I?**

**Me: Because you love your reviewers and you love me.**

**Ryoma: The first one is true the second is debatable...**

**Me: That hurts. I think I'm gonna go call Rinko-chan... RIN-**

**Ryoma: *dives on me* NO! Don't call her. I'll give out cake and do the disclaimer! Just don't call her!**

**Ryoma: Clearly I wouldn't have to do this if RainyNightSilhouette owned PoT. Thank Kami-sama she doesn't! *hands out cake***

* * *

"Ohayou Ryoma-chan," Ryuuzaki-sensei said to the slightly sleepy first-year.

"Ohayou Ryuuzaki-sensei, I'm here for our pre-practice meeting" the first-year greeted.

This morning Ryoma did something rare; she woke up early and by choice too! Normally she would have slept until Karupin jumped on her and licked her face but Ryuuzaki-sensei told her to meet her early for a special meeting.

"Ryoma-chan, about your spot as a regular-" the older woman began sitting behind her desk.

"You said I was a regular" the young girl interrupted. "And I agreed to your terms so what-"

"Ryoma-chan calm down. I will keep my word so you are a regular, I just wanted to talk to you about some things," the math teacher said patiently.

Ryoma nodded mutely waiting for the onslaught of questions that she knew was going to come.

"You do know that in Japan team sports are mixed and you would have been allowed on as a girl?"

Ryoma grimaced slightly and nodded, she had expected that question.

"Then why did you agree with my terms for you to be disguised as a boy?" Ryuuzaki-sensei asked curiously.

It was a very old rule that nearly no one used and it took the approval of the principal, a vote among the leaders of the Tennis Association as well as the student maintaining a very high GPA but it was allowed. Ryuuzaki-sensei would have allowed the girl to continue as a boy if not for this rule and if not for the fact that the girl had already been so incredibly popular in class. If Ryoma weren't as popular then Ryuuzaki-sensei wouldn't have to worry about someone finding out about her gender but because she was already the talk of the town then her idea of keeping Ryoma's gender a secret was pointless.

"I know that I can enter as a girl but no one really takes a girl serious. I want-no, I need to be taken seriously otherwise there is no fun in playing," the former 'Prince' hung her head. What Ryoma said was not a lie but it wasn't the complete truth either. She wanted to be entered as a boy not only because no one took girls seriously but also because if she were disguised as a boy no one would try to repeat the _incident_.

Ryuuzaki-sensei studied the petite girl in front of her. Her head was bowed slightly but she could see memories, courage, determination and something she couldn't quite name in the young girl's eyes. Her mouth was frowning slightly but the determination was evidence in the set of her lips.

The tennis coach sighed, "You can dress as a boy and be on the boy's team, but you will be entered as a girl."

Ryoma smiled happily and bowed to her coach, "Arigato Ryuuzaki-sensei."

Staring at the raven-haired youth she asked the question that has been on her mind for sometime, "How is that baka Nanjiro?"

Ryoma looked slightly surprised that her coach knew her baka oyaji but it was quickly replaced by a smirk when she realized who Ryuuzaki-sensei really was, "Oyaji is as perverted as usual. He told me to give 'that baba' a message; he says, " I found a bigger dream."

Ryuuzaki-sensei twitched at the 'baba' comment but smiled at his real message. 'That man will never change. But I suppose it's fitting that the man who made waves 15 years ago would send his daughter out to make some more waves,' she thought to herself. The now smiling coach waved the raven-haired girl out and told her to bring all the regulars to her.

* * *

"Nya, Why do you think Ochibi-chan didn't wait for us this morning?" Eiji asked no one in particular.

"Saa, who knows?" Yukimura responded.

The boarders, who had woken up an hour ago, were walking to school, some dejectedly, some sleepily and the rest were just thoughtful. Eiji had woken up particularly early this morning so that he could be the first to greet their newest housemate, only to discover that she had already left. Upon discovering this, the acrobat vowed to glomp his 'Ochibi' twice as much.

The 9 boys walked to the gates and headed to the locker room to change. The boys were just about to split off towards their team's locker rooms when Eiji spotted a white hat, "Nya! It's Ochibi!" he cried glomping the unsuspecting first year.

The golden-eyed girl struggled to breathe and managed to choke out a small command, "Eiji-senpai, let go…."

Seeing his human plushie was turning blue, the blue-eyed redhead lessened his grip but continued to hold on to the girl.

After she had caught her breath Ryoma turned towards her senpai/housemates, "Ryuuzaki-sensei said she wanted to talk with all the regulars before practice, you better hurry and change. She also wanted whoever was here first to make sure ALL the regulars came to the meeting."

The 9 boys hurried towards their respective locker rooms to change. Ryuuzaki-sensei rarely called meetings unless there was a tournament coming up and then it was only the buchous and the fukubuchous so they all hurried.

Shortly after they had changed the rest of the regulars arrived changing as well. Together the 24 regulars headed to the coach's room.

"For once all of you are here on time," Ryuuzaki-sensei said quietly. Normally there was at least one person late but not to today, it was quite a feat really.

"I know you are all probably wondering why I called this meeting," she spoke addressing the question on everyone's mind.

"Yes, ore-sama wishes to know why his practice is being interrupted," the flamboyant diva of Hyotei said airily.

Ignoring his comment Ryuuzaki-sensei continued, "It is about the newest regular, Echizen Ryoma. I know that it is the middle of the school year and that the ranking matches are over but she is-."

"She?" Atobe asked surprised. 'How can a delicate girl keep up with ones such as us,' he thought. Hyotei's buchou had nothing against girls personally but he just didn't believe that girls, who were delicate, and very look-conscious, could keep up with the training needed for tennis.

"Yes. Echizen Ryoma is a girl but don't let that fool you she beat Oshitari-kun yesterday as well as Akari-san. Anyway she is now a regular since she has passed the test. I want-" she was cut off again.

"But Oshitari-senpai was injured and what do you mean by tests?" Momoshiro asked confused. Many of the people in the room nodded in agreement, they didn't have anything against the first year but they couldn't help but doubt the girl.

Ryuuzaki-sensei was about to answer but Hyotei's tensai beat her to it, "While it is true I am injured she was definitely holding back," he began. "Of the 5 games I won Ryoma played 3 with her non-dominant hand. The other 2 games that she played with her left hand were not only hard for me to win but she didn't even play seriously against me. That girl knew that I had hurt myself but more importantly she had won against me with her weights still on, playing not seriously and she didn't even break a sweat."

Enlightened by this new information the tennis regulars became uncharacteristically quiet. They thought back to the short girl they had met yesterday, she didn't look like much but she was definitely something else.

"That doesn't answer our question about the tests," Hiyoshi spoke up. The brunette was still stunned but he wanted to know what sort of tests the girl had to have taken.

"Her first test was defeating a regular. Her second was winning the approval of the Japanese Tennis Association. Her last test was something a bit more difficult; she had to pass a test of my own design. She passed all the test with flying colors," she answered neglecting to add in the darkness, sadness and loneliness she discovered through the last test.

"Despite the fact that I think Echizen-chan is amazing how can she as a girl be allowed to participate in a BOY'S tennis tournament?" the ever worrying mother of Seigaku asked.

"Tennis is a team sport. So in Japan a rule was made a long time ago that girls could participate as well. It isn't well known so not many people use it but it is allowed. However the girl must gain approval from her parents/guardians, principal, coach and the Japanese Tennis Association. The JTA has its leaders take a vote and in Ryoma's case they all agreed. I got the call last night. However to avoid unnecessary trouble she will wear the boy's uniform," the math teacher explained.

The boys nodded in understanding. Having a girl on the Boys' Tennis Team would make life for said girl hard enough but if she were a regular then the other regulars' fan clubs would make it worse.

"Now that all of that has been explained all of you except for the captains please return to practice," the old teacher said dismissing the group of boys.

* * *

When the 21 regulars returned to the courts they saw that all but one person was slacking off. With the jacket on no one could tell who the running figure was but they could easily tell that it was a first-year. The newly arrived boys watched in amazement as the figure continued running around the courts, as the figure neared them a young voice yelled out, "Mada mada dane senpai-tachi!" and continued to run past them.

Hearing this phrase ignited the fire within the boys so they *read: everyone except Sanada and Oishi* ran after the new regular. Sighing at their teammates, Oishi turned to go run with them and Sanada looked at the Tennis Club members, "Why are you just standing there? Run!" he barked. Hearing the Rikkaidai fukubuchou yell made all of the boys lazing about spring into action.

For the next 40 laps the Tennis Club ran around the courts non-stop. However the last 10 laps were full on sprints due to some creative motivation on Inui's part *read: Inui Juice*.

After the warm-up and brief near-death experiences the club members went to get water and set up the tennis equipment. One certain regular was helping wake some of her fellow tennis members by pouring water on their heads, an act that she took a lot of pleasure in.

Said devious girl was walking over to the water fountain to refill her bucket when she crashed in a tall, flamboyant, loud, purple wall.

"Ore-sama demands to know who crashed into Ore-sama's glorious body?" the purple wall demanded.

'Ore-sama?' Ryoma thought to herself. 'Just who does he think he is? A king or something?' Ryoma got up and walked past the pompous boy, ignoring his question.

As she walked past him, Atobe grabbed the young player's arm, "Do not ignore Ore-sama when Ore-sama is talking to you plebian!"

"Che. Let go of me," Ryoma said pulling on her arm.

Atobe tightened his grip on the first-year's arm, "Ore-sama demands to know your name gaki! You should be glad Ore-sama blessed you with his wonderful voice!" he said thoroughly annoyed at the youth. 'Does he even know who I am?' he thought to himself.

"Che. I don't need to answer you, Monkey King," 'he' answered.

Atobe twitched at the name, "Monkey King? How dare you call Ore-sama such a deeming name!" he roared at the 'boy'.

Ryoma raised her eyebrow at the other boy, "Che. Whatever Monkey King."

Atobe twitched again glared at the shorter boy, "That's it! We are having a tennis match now! Ore-sama shall teach you to respect Ore-sama!" he roared as he dragged the 'boy' towards the court.

"Which, gaki?" the now furious boy asked the shorter 'boy'.

"Smooth." Ryoma replied easily. She wasn't very worried she was actually a bit excited. She didn't know who this boy was but she could tell by his aura that he was good, 'Maybe I'll get a bit of a challenge' she thought to herself.

Atobe spun the racket and in landed as smooth. "End" he murmured.

"Serve," Ryoma said heading to the serving line. She threw the ball down and caught it with her left hand, 'Her we go!' she thought serving the ball.

* * *

20 minutes into their game a crowd had surrounded the court. Many of the non-regulars were looking at the two players in awe and amazement. None of the regulars were watching though because they were to busy with their own training or looking for their two missing regulars.

"Echizen to serve. 2-all!" Ryoma yelled. The game had been going for 40 minutes and so far the two players were neck in neck. After the first two games Ryoma had switched to her left hand and Atobe has begun to use his special moves, especially his Tannhauser Serve. However eventually Ryoma broke his serve and began returning it with her newest move, Yume no Hanabi.

As Ryoma continued to play Atobe continued to be amazed, 'Who is this boy?' he thought. He continued to throw new things at her and she continued to fight back against it and eventually break it. Eventually the two highschoolers became lost in the game, Atobe forgot his anger and Ryoma forgot her want to show up the infuriating boy.

Lost in their own world the two regulars didn't hear nor see their teammates arrive.

"Saa. So that's where Ryo-chan went," Fuji said looking at the match.

"It seems as if our beloved kouhai is giving Atobe a bit of trouble ne?" Yukimura said amused.

"An encounter like this was bound to happen. However Echizen-chan seems to be giving Atobe more trouble than I had calculated," Inui said scribbling in his notebook.

The rest of the regulars made similar comments as the watched the match. It looked like a beautiful dance and they would have gladly watched it forever had Ryuuzaki-sensei not walked over.

The tennis coach saw the crowd, which now contained club members, regulars and a whole bunch of regular students, and walked over to see what was going on. Noticing that it was a match between Ryoma and Atobe she sighed. She was thinking about letting it go on for a while longer until she heard the score, "Atobe to serve. 3 games all!" the unofficial umpire announced. By the looks of the crowd the match had been going on for quite some time now and since she wanted some of her students to practice she decided to end the match, "Oi! Atobe! Echizen! Stop!"

Despite being told to stop the two players continued their match in their own little world. She called to the two highschoolers a few more times, growing more annoyed with each passing moment. Finally she walked over to a basket of tennis balls and grabbed a racket, "The only way to stop those to idiots is with brute force," she muttered to herself.

The math teacher picked up a ball and served it towards the Diva's head. Within moments a loud "Itai!" was heard.

Atobe was brought back to reality when a small round object hit him directly in the head. Turning he glared at the perpetrator but he quickly turned back to his match with a sniff, 'Ore-sama is much too busy to deal with Ore-sama's sensei right now'. Atobe played against his opponent the same way he played against Tezuka, Sanada, Fuji and Yukimura. 'This boy is something new. First he dares defy Ore-sama and then he manages to play an even match against Ore-sama' he mused to himself.

Ryuuzaki-sensei watched the Diva ignore her and felt her annoyance rise. She twitched slightly and picked up another ball this time aiming at the person opposite her first victim.

Ryoma felt something small rush at her and let her instincts take over. She swung her arm up and hit the ball so that it arced over the fence and out of her match. If she were paying attention then she would have hit the ball back at old coach. However since she wasn't she didn't notice that she hit it into the crowd and at a certain second-year ace.

"Itai!" said boy cried, "That Chibi no Akuma! She hit me!" His housemates laughed at the boy, their female regular had hurt their 'baby' again.

"I'm gonna get you!" Kirihara yelled at the young girl.

Ryoma ignored him and continued with her match fully immersed. She was having so much fun playing against the Monkey King. She was about to serve when she felt someone pull on her ear, "Itai! Itai!" she cried as she was pulled out of the court. As the two women passed the younger's opponent, Ryuuzaki-sensei grabbed his ear and pulled him out too.

"When I say stop, I mean STOP!" the old coach yelled at the two players she had just dragged out of the court.

"Gomen," the two teenagers said rubbing their ears.

Ryuuzaki-sensei looked at the two and sighed, "I am disappointed in you both of you."

She turned her gaze to Atobe and glared, "As a senpai and as the buchou of Hyotei you should know better than to have an unscheduled match against your kouhai!"

Ryoma snickered quietly at the older boy. However her amusement was short lived as the math teacher turned her gaze on Ryoma.

"And you, young lady! As the Pr-person that you are, you should definitely know better!" the grandmother of Ryoma's friend yelled.

Ryuuzaki-sensei was grateful that she was able to catch herself in the middle of her sentence. 'I almost gave Ryoma away!' she scolded herself, angrily.

Ryoma flinched when she heard her coach nearly call her the 'Prince'. If people knew she was the 'Prince' she could kiss her happy life good-bye. Even worse people would be able to connect her to the _incident_.

Atobe looked over at the other player in shock. He thought that he was playing a boy, a very feminine boy but a boy nonetheless, after all what girl dresses like a boy-unless. "You're Ryoma Echizen, the newest regular. The girl who beat Oshitari," he said in realization.

"Yup! Mada mada dane, Monkey King" Ryoma said heading to the girls' locker room.

The crowd, who watched this scene unfold, stared at the girl's back. The new information flooded over the spectators with shock. "A girl. A girl played on par with Atobe-sama," one person whispered quietly. The crowd remained silent until a loud voice yelled excitedly, "Kya! Ryoma-hime-sama is so cool!" With that Ryoma got her unwanted, yet completely devoted fanclub.

* * *

Ryoma spent her class time doing what she normally did, sleeping and upsetting her teachers. None of her teachers wanted to wake the sleeping bishoujo even if she was upsetting them by sleeping.

It seemed as if the young prodigy would sleep forever until the sound of the lunch bell was heard. As if on cue, her head shot up and she quickly grabbed her violin case and her obentou.

Seeing his new friend get up Momo got up as well, planning on dragging the girl to his table. However being the clumsy teen he was, he tripped over Kaidoh's bag, which started fight #36 of this week.

"Why did you put your bag over here to trip me Mamushi!" he yelled.

"Baka. Watch where you're going Momoshiri" Kaidoh retorted.

Ryoma shook her head at her senpai and headed out the door.

'Where to go?' she asked herself. Thinking that some quite would be good she head off towards the back staircase. She had stumbled upon this stairwell when she was coming back from the principal's office. She had asked a boy what hall to take and he gave her the wrong directions…'but his face was pretty red so it could have been the fever talking' she reasoned to herself.

Reaching the nearly unused stairwell, Ryoma walked all the way to the top and opened the door to the roof. She looked around and noticed that it was actually pretty clean up here. Sighing in contentment at the peacefulness she sat down and began eating her obentou.

"That was good~!" Ryoma said loudly. "Japanese food really is the best" she mused aloud.

She noticed that she had 30 minute left until lunch was over. 'Good. Maybe I can finish this piece I've been working on' she thought happily. Taking out her music sheets from her violin case she began writing.

After about 6 minutes of staring at her music sheets Ryoma growled in frustration, "This is getting me no where!" She reached into her case and took out her violin, "If I can't write, I'll play."

The first note rung out in the empty silence, and Ryoma closed her eyes. Taking a breath she drew the bow across the strings and the notes began to pour out. Note after note painted the empty silence, like a canvas, and Ryoma let her consciousness leave her. She became lost in her music, her memories.

Her memories began to resonate in every note. All she could see in her mind was the blood, tears, broken glass, mirrors, chains and blackness. All the pictures, the flashes and darkness came from _that_ day.

She opened her now wet eyelashes and sat down staring up at the bright blue sky.

* * *

'Too bad I couldn't make practice today' Ryoma thought to herself.

Ryoma had told Ryuuzaki-sensei that she would miss practice today because she was signing up for the music club. By the time she had preformed and signed up practice had ended. So this is how the emerald-tinted tennis prodigy ended up walking aimlessly through the streets.

Looking around Ryoma heard a familiar sound. _Pak. Pak. Pak._ It was the sound of a tennis ball hitting against the pavement. A smile bloomed on her face as she ran towards the noise. 'Maybe, I'll get a bit of practice today after all' she thought to herself.

She ran around the corner and saw 7 public tennis courts. Seeing that there were some games going on she decided to check them out. She walked over and what she saw appalled her. She saw two guys, who were clearly highschoolers hit balls at middleschoolers who were slumped on the ground in exhaustion. A crowd had gathered and while many were grumbling about how cruel it was, none raised a hand to stop them.

Ryoma felt a small bit of digust rise and she rolled her eyes. Without the two high schoolers noticing, she opened the gate and set her bags by the bench and took out her beloved red racket.

The crowd watched in awe and amazement as a golden-eyed girl ran on to the court and just as a few tennis balls were about to hit the two smaller boys she hit ALL the balls back at the high schoolers.

"Yo! Bakas! Don't you know it's wrong to bully little kids!" she shouted.

"Shut up little girl! Why don't you run back and stay behind the fence!" the taller one yelled.

"I'll pass but if you have so much energy why don't you two have a match against me?" Ryoma asked with a smirk.

"Fine but we're playing doubles," the shorter boy says grinning.

Ryoma was about to respond that she didn't need a partner when another boy spoke up, "No problem. I'll be her partner."

Ryoma turned to see a brunette walk to one side of the court, "Besides people who pick on others are despicable."

Curiously, Ryoma walked over to stand with the brunette. He had an X shaped scar on his forehead and violet eyes. She noticed that he carried himself like a person who was good at tennis would but the glint in his eyes told a different story.

"I don't need your help you know," the 'Prince' stated walking to the baseline.

The brunette rolled his eyes and turned to the other boys, "Call it."

"Rough" the shorter one said.

Ryoma's mysterious partner spun his racket and _THUNK_.

"Smooth. Our serve."

With that the boys returned to their positions and the violet-eyed boy tossed the tennis ball to Ryoma.

"It's over," she muttered bouncing the ball.

* * *

The crowd couldn't believe it. It had been 4 minutes and the combination of the two heroes had already won. The scariest thing was that neither of the golden-eyed girl or her partner had broken a sweat.

"Good job…." Ryoma trailed off.

"Yuuta. Fuji Yuuta," he responded bracing himself for the words he knew this girl was going to say.

"Good job then, Yuuta-kun," she smiled.

Yuuta stared at her in disbelief, "What, no 'KYAA! Fuji-senpai's otouto?' No 'Fuji as in the tennis tensai?' not even 'The Southpaw Killer?'"

"The who?" she asked confused. "Fuji…hmm…The boy who sits next to me in English?"

Ryoma was never all too good at names. In fact unless you played tennis very well she wouldn't even remember if she played you in a game. Since, Shuusuke had yet to play in front of Ryoma she only remembered him vaguely.

Yuuta stare of disbelief slowly turned into a smile; for once someone didn't compare himself to his brother.

"Do you want a match 'Southpaw Killer'?" Ryoma asked with a gleam in her eye. She had seen him during the match and though he didn't show off or do anything special but she could tell that he was good.

Yuuta was stunned and excited. This girl wanted to play against him even though she knew he was called the Southpaw Killer. Most _male_ tennis players didn't want to play against him.

He was about to reply when music interrupted him.

_If only…If only…. I would ask you over and over…_

Ryoma picked up her phone, "Moshi, Moshi?"

"Ryoma-chan don't forget it's your turn to cook tonight!" Sayaka's voice drifted out of the phone.

"Ah! I almost forgot. Thanks Sayaka-nee-chan. I'll be right over."

Ryoma turned to her new friend, "Sorry Yuuta-kun. Can I take a rain check? I need to get home and cook dinner."

"It's fine. I'll see you tomorrow…." He trailed off, suddenly realizing that he never learned her name.

Ryoma, realizing the same thing, smiled, "Ryoma. Echizen Ryoma. How about we meet up at 5?"

Yuuta nodded in agreement and smiled at his new friend, "Tomorrow."

"Ja ne Yuuta-kun!" she yelled grabbing her bag and running off.

The violet-eyed brunette stared at the girl's disappearing figure and smiled, she was a truly unique person.

* * *

"Tadaima!" the tennis prodigy called entering the house.

"Okaeri Ryoma-chan!" Sayaka answered the girl.

"I'll begin after I've dropped my stuff off," the golden-eyed girl called running up the stairs.

She entered her room thinking of what to make for dinner when she saw a box. 'Okaa-san must have sent me some stuff,' she figured. Shrugging, she changed into pajama pants and a tank top and headed downstairs.

As she was walking she tripped over her sock and began to fall down the stairs. Her eyes widened and she twisted her body so her back would take the fall. She braced for the pain when she realized that there wasn't any.

She opened her eyes and saw a pair of piercing blue ones staring back.

* * *

**YAY! DONE! Next chapter will be more exciting.**

**Please review and vote! I love all the answers to my questions!**

**Question time:**

**1) What's in the box?**

**2) Who did Ryo-chan fall on?**

**3) Who will win? Yuuta or Ryoma?**

**4) Will Atobe and Ryoma have their rematch?**

**5) How will Ryoma react to her fanclub?**

**6) Will Akaya be abused in the next chapter?**

**Who knows! Please review and vote!**


	7. A Package and a Game of HideAndGoSeek

**Sorry for taking so long. I was busy with a lot of stuff, but have no fear I'm back!**

**I know I've been gone for a while, but to make it up I made this chapter extra long! (It's about 18 pages!)**

**Sadly, Atobe and Yuuta aren't in here but they will be in the next chapter! On the brightside: Akaya abuse is back! Plus you get to learn more about Ryo-chan's past!**

**Please Read, Review and Vote! This is your last chapter to vote on for Ryoma's pairing! **

**But you can vote for other pairings like, Golden pair or Perfect or etc... Even an OC! but you have to tell me which.**

**To Haruna Pan: It really is fun to abuse him. I'm glad someone else understands the fun in it *Fuji smile***

**To Meg L.H: Thank you so much! I'm really glad you look forward to my story!**

**To senshiHg : Atobe did know who Ryoma was but he thought she was a boy and so he dismissed Ryoma's last name. Plus he was more focused on beating her than he was on her name.**

**Poll Results:**

**Sensual: 47**

**Thrill: 38**

**Royal: 20**

**Brat: 19**

**Otouto: 16**

**Pillar: 13**

**Cap: 9**

**Sleepy: 2**

**Shishido: 2**

**Ohotrori: 2**

**OT5: 3**

**OT6: 3**

**Thanks to everyone who is voting and reviewing! I love you all!**

**Please continue to vote and review and vote for other non-Ryoma pairings!**

**Me: Now I need to do the disclaimer...Why don't I have Ryo-chan do it and Yuu-chan can help too!**

**Ryoma: Who are you calling Ryo-chan?**

**Yuuta: And Yuu-chan?**

**Me: Do it. Plus I can call your okaa-san Ryoma. And Yuuta; you know Syuusuke really misses you. May I should just...**

**Yuuta: NO!**

**Ryoma: *looks upward* Kami-sama, do you hate us?**

**Me: Aww! Ryo-chan's a meanie! **

**Ryoma: It's true...Let's go Yuu-chan *smirk***

**Yuuta: *glare* Fine, Ryo-chan *smirk***

**Ryoma and Yuuta begin a glaring match.**

**Me: You guys...remember the disclaimer...I still have my phone. Syuusuke and Rinko are on speed dial...**

**Ryoma & Yuuta: *dives on me* NO!**

**Ryoma: Thankfully RainyNightSilhouette doesn't own PoT.**

**Yuuta: If she did there would be a whole lot of chaos.**

**Me: YAY! Thank you Ryo-chan and Yuu-chan!**

* * *

"F-fuji-senpai?" she stuttered, confused. "Why are you here? I know you don't live here."

"Ryo-chan is that anyway to treat the person who saved you?" he asked, closing his eyes.

The look of confusion that had taken over Ryoma's face, quickly changed to one of annoyance. "I told you not to call me that Fuji-senpai," she said getting off of him.

She turned around and held her hand out. Fuji just stared at her hand, knowing it would make the younger teen annoyed.

After a few more moments Fuji's prediction came true. "Fuji-senpai, it's called a hand. You grab it and I help you up. Now take it," she growled growing more agitated.

"Saa, Ryo-chan if you wanted to hold my hand all you had to do was ask you know," he smiled grasping the smaller hand. He watched in amusement as the golden-eyed girl's face turned a bright red color.

"Who says I want to hold your hand!" she stormed down the next flight of stairs, her face still red.

Fuji chuckled silently at his kouhai's reaction. He turned and continued up the stairs that Ryoma just fell down, when a voice stopped him. "Arigato Fuji-senpai" a small feminine voice whispered.

Fuji smiled to himself and continued walking up the stairs but not before calling out, "Your welcome Ryo-chan."

* * *

Ryoma rushed into the kitchen and nearly missed crashing into Sayaka.

"Ryoma-chan! Be careful when you're running!" the older woman said grabbing the short teenager. Sayaka was about to ask what she was in a hurry for when she saw the girl's face.

"Kawaii!" the bluenette exclaimed. "Ryoma-chan is blushing! It must be over a boy! Who is he?"

"Mou Sayaka-onee-chan! I'm not blushing over a boy!" Ryoma insisted trying to hide her blush.

Sayaka only grinned wider at Ryoma's outburst, "Whatever you say Ryoma-chan~!" The older girl turned around and began getting out some pots and pans.

Ryoma sighed knowing she couldn't say anything to change the older girl's mind. "How many people are we cooking for?" the younger girl asked. Ryoma asked more out of habit than anything else. She knew that everyone in the house usually ate together but after years of eating somewhat alone she just couldn't stop asking.

"About 18 people…. I would make for about 27 people though," Sayaka answered, heading to the pantry.

"NANI! Why so much?" Ryoma exclaimed nearly dropping the pan in her hand.

Sayaka turned towards her new 'sister' and deadpanned, "Have you seen the way you all eat?"

Ryoma smiled sheepishly, "Well, you do have a point but it's still a lot."

Sayaka smiled at the younger girl, 'It seems that she doesn't know how close the boys are to each other.' "Yes, well sometimes we get visitors. I don't think he'll come today though."

The tennis prodigy stared at her friend before shaking her head; she would figure it our sooner or later.

The golden-eyed girl headed over to the fridge and a smile broke out on her face. There were so many fresh-looking ingredients and tons of meats and cheeses for her to cook with. She quickly grabbed as much food as she could carry and set it down on the counter and began chopping the food.

"Ryo-chan? What are we cooking?" the bluenette asked the girl curiously.

"Hi-mi-tsu~!" Ryoma replied happily. "Now chop this and turn the oven on," she said handing the older girl various meats.

The blue-eyed girl shook her head and smiled at the shorter girl, 'Well her mother did say she became like another person in the kitchen.'

* * *

"I wonder what Ochibi-chan is going to cook?" a certain girl's senpai asked thoughtfully.

"I hope there's cake!" the Rikkaidai acrobat exclaimed.

"Well whatever Echizen-chan makes is delicious, so anything's fine with me" Hyotei's sleeping tensai said with a smile.

Everyone who had dinner made my Ryoma nodded in silent agreement. Her food was definitely delicious. In fact the very thought of such a delicious dinner made a few of them drool.

The ones who hadn't eaten with them simply stared at them curiously. Except for Fuji who was grinning like the Cheshire cat.

"Fuji-ko? Why are you grinning like that?" Kikumaru asked slightly concerned.

"Like what, Eiji?" the brunette asked, still smiling.

"There is a 97% chance he is going to pull a prank or embarrass someone," Inui said, scribbling in his notebook.

Everyone in the room aside from the other sadist felt a chill run down their back. Whenever Fuji smiled like that the rest of them were most likely in for a world of embarrassment and pain.

"Oishi! Fuji-ko is scaring me!" the redhead exclaimed, jumping on his doubles partner.

"Speaking of which. You've been grinning like that since you came into the room. Did something happen Fuji-senpai?" Kirihara asked from his hiding spot behind Niou. Fuji's smile scared the poor boy a bit more than everyone else since he had a tendency to get caught in nearly every one of Fuji's pranks, whether it was intended for him or not. Inside his head the second-year ace wailed, 'Please do not be planning something! Kami-sama if you care for me or if you pity me at all please don't let him be planning something!'

"Saa, I got to tease Ryo-chan on my way up," he replied, smiling.

"Poor Echizen-chan has the tensais after her," Marui grumbled.

A few people sent up silent prayers for their new kouhai. Even Kirihara felt bad for the girl, 'Poor evil demon chibi. I wouldn't wish that fate on ANYONE.' Tezuka and Sanada rubbed their temples, 'I have a feeling I'm going to be needing some more aspirin,' they thought in unison. Inui muttered a quick, "Iie data," before scribbling more in his notebook. The other tricksters, laughed a little though.

Shishido, who wasn't here for the 'dinner incident' looked at Rikkaidai's acrobat in question, "What do you mean by both?"

"Yukimura stole Ocihibi's innocence!" Kikumaru explained before Gakuto interrupted him.

"Well, we were all going to dinner and Marui-baka was running down the stairs and jumped on the couch. We thought he landed on someone and killed them, but it turned out to be Echizen-chan, who was sleeping. So, we tried to wake her up but nothing worked," he paused taking a breath.

"She bit me!" Kirihara exclaimed, a bit outraged. Just remembering it ticked him off.

"Anyways, after the first attempt Mura-buchou tried to wake her up. Except he-he kissed on the lips!" Marui said.

The room got deathly silent as everyone turned towards Yukimura. The bluenette simply smiled and said, "I thought it would be funny to see your reactions. Besides I didn't actually kiss her. It only looked like I did. I actually blew in her ear."

More silence.

"Iie data" Seigaku's data master muttered, writing in his notebook.

'I'm going to need some more aspirin' Tezuka and Sanada thought simultaneously.

"Fshh," Kaidoh sighed. Why did he have to get stuck with the weird housemates?

A few people *read: Oishi and Ootori* got a bit more worried.

Some of the others *read: Shishido, Gakuto, Niou and Marui* simply sent more silent prayers to the short girl.

The rest looked surprised and…all right with it?

"Nya! I see now! Yukimura didn't steal Ochibi's innocence. It's ok now!" Kikumaru exclaimed happily.

Fuji just looked at his friend and fellow sadist. He didn't know what he was feeling inside but he just didn't like that his friend almost kissed his kouhai.

"Minna! Dinner's ready!" a loud feminine voice called up.

The sound of cheers met the call. The group of boys then got up and headed downstairs.

* * *

The sound of happy and appreciative sighs met Ryoma's ears, as everyone finished their meal. Ryoma and Sayaka had prepared 2 glazed ducks with cranberry sauce, chicken stir-fry and a large pot of rice. To normal people it would be a huge amount of food, but for this group of teenagers it was still not enough. The two girls knew this and decided to make strawberry shortcake and a pumpkin pie.

Ryoma was about to get the desserts when Sayaka came out with them. "We made dessert too!" she cried happily.

Sayaka was happy to finally be able to make dessert without having to do it during dinner. The boys were sweet and amazing tennis players but their skill in the kitchen left something to be desired. The bluenette shuddered remembering their cooking attempts, 'I didn't know curry could become blue,' she thought to herself.

Polite thank-yous and loud cheers met her arrival. She set the picturesque desserts down and stepped back. If it weren't for the strict and watchful buchous and fukubuchou the boys probably would have started fighting over the food.

The sole females watched in amusement as the boys tried to discreetly steal their friends' food. Their amusement turned into laughter when one of the wanna be thieves *read: Kirihara* was bit by one of the would be victims *read: Marui*. Kirihara yelped and hid behind Sayaka.

"Buchou! Marui-senpai bit me!" the 'Devil' cried.

"Buchou! Akaya tried to STEAL my cake!" the acrobat responded immediately.

Yukimura looked at his two teammates and smiled, "Kirihara, stealing is wrong. I know that no one from Rikkaidai would dare try to steal. Such an offense could lead to a match with me."

Everyone in the room felt the temperature drop 10 degrees. Kirihara hid behind the older girl even more.

"Marui, you shouldn't have bitten Kirihara. He is our kouhai and as such needs guidance and discipline. Taking away all of his desserts would have sufficed," the sadistic buchou continued with a smile.

Kirihara whimpered and tried to make himself as small as possible. "Gomenasai, senpai. I promise I'll never ever do it again!" the 'Devil of the Court' cried in terror.

The rest of the table broke into full-blown laughter or as close as most could get *read: small genuine/sadistic smiles *. Even the people who usually got headaches from these sort of situations or became irritated *read: Tezuka, Sanada and Kaidoh* gave a small uplift of their lips *read: a smile*.

Sayaka looked around the room and saw the happy faces of the boys she has come to think of as otoutos. However what really brought a smile to her face was the pure, unguarded happiness on her new 'imouto's' face. The older female knew that the newest addition to her 'family' had gone through a large amount of psychological pain and trauma both from the _incident_ and from leaving America. She remember clearly when her long-time friend, Rinko called her in panic and terror after she had gotten Ryoma back.

_~Flashback~_

_Sayaka was in the kitchen washing the dishes from breakfast that morning. Normally the boys would do them but today they had an important meeting they all needed to go to._

_The kind blue-eyed woman looked out the window up to the sky. It was a dark grey and you could feel the storm approaching. She dismissed the foreboding feeling she felt, chalking it up to concern about the upcoming storm. _

_Sayaka began to dry the dishes when the vase behind her cracked. She spun around quickly and saw the pieces fall to the counter it was resting on. Her heart began to hammer in her chest and she felt fear crawl up her throat._

_The vase was one of the most precious things Sayaka had. It was not particularly expensive but it was important to her nonetheless. The light aqua and cream accented vase had been given to her by one of her best friends, Takeuchi Rinko, now Echizen Rinko. She remember the letter her bright friend had sent to her, gushing about how her little baby girl had picked it out specifically for her. Sayaka was surprised to say the least but it was quickly replaced by a warm happy feeling. For some reason she felt a lot closer to the baby now._

_With deft hands, the bluenette slowly picked up the vase pieces. She stared at them with unseeing eyes, a feeling of pure terror crashing down on her._

_Suddenly, the telephone beside the sink began to ring. _

_Sayaka quickly ran to the phone, a feeling of urgency pushing her. _

"_Hello?" she asked fearfully. She knew it had something to do with the Echizens but she wasn't sure if she could handle it._

"_Saya?" a familiar voice sobbed. Sayaka's eyes widened, only one person called her that. _

"_Saya? It's me, Rinko," the voice sobbed hesitantly._

_One of the things Sayaka knew about her friend was that it took a __**lot**__ for her to cry. Whenever Rinko came across something most people would cry over she didn't cry. No, she became furious. In fact she wouldn't even shed a tear she would just grow angrier and try to right whatever wrong had been done. Sayaka had only seen her friend cry in happiness, relief or in helplessness._

"_Rin-chan, what-," the bluenette asked in concern. _

"_It's Ryoma. Oh god, Saya! My baby! My baby!" Rinko sobbed, cutting her off._

_Sayaka felt her blood run cold. She hadn't met Ryoma in person but Rinko had told her a lot about her daughter. She knew the 15 year-old-girl had a rough side but she was still really sweet. In fact, Ryoma seemed to be one of the most caring people she had ever heard of. Sure, she could be a bit hyper, sadistic, violent, forgetful, harsh and temperamental (according to Rinko) but she really did care. Rinko hadn't told her what happened but Sayaka would bet anything that something bad had happened to Ryoma._

"_Saya! How-how could someone hurt her like that? She didn't do anything wrong! Oh god!" Rinko sobbed harder._

"_Rin-" Sayaka began again._

"_Why HER? Why my baby? What could they have against her?" the sobbing mother began crying hysterically._

"_RINKO!" the normally calm 29-year-old yelled. Sayaka waited until she heard her friend's crying calm down. "You know crying won't help anything. Please, tell me what happened."_

_Rinko gathered her courage, took a deep breath and began her story. "It was 3 days ago. Tennis practice went late and so Ryoma called and told us she would be late coming home. I didn't feel worried, things that like happen. So I prepared dinner for her and went upstairs to watch TV. Nanji-kun was out with some of his old tennis friends and Ryoga was out on a date. I was all alone so I decided to wait for her. I waited and waited and waited but she didn't come home. I waited for 6 hours before I tried to call her. I was expecting her to pick up and say one of her friends invited her over and that she forgot to tell me. But, she didn't pick up. I called again and she didn't pick up. I got worried so I called her friends. Kelly, Joel and Kevin all said that they saw Ryoma head home, as the 'Prince'. She had gone to tennis practice after a charity match that day. I started to get even more scared. I called her again and when she didn't pick up I called the police. I knew it hadn't been 24 hours but she was gone! The police said that they would look for her so I called Nanji and Ryoga. They were terrified and they told me that they were going out to look for her. I knew that they wanted me to stay home but my baby was gone! I had to go out and look for her. I went outside to look for her and I called Kevin again so he could call their other teammates. I don't know how long I looked for her, but the next thing I know, I saw the sun begin to rise. I didn't know what to do so I walked back home and I opened the door, hoping to find her but she wasn't there! I was about to call the school when the phone rang. It was the police; they had found her tennis bag. They said that they found it near the street courts. I knew something was terribly terribly wrong when they said that. Ryoma would __**die**__ before she just left her tennis bag just lying around. After that I called the school, but the principal already knew. He said that the tennis team was out searching for her and I resumed searching myself. However, no matter where any of us looked we couldn't find her. Another day went by and it became today. I was about to check another part of the city when I got a phone call. It was the police. They had found my Ryoma. They told me that she was in the hospital. I jumped into my car and drove as fast as I could but when I got here they told me she's in surgery. The police found me and told me what happened, it seems as though some people kidnapped her and they tortured her. Oh god! My baby! My poor baby!" she finished, her voice breaking._

_Sayaka was floored, Ryoma, the cute, stubborn tennis fanatic was kidnapped and tortured. 'No. No. Things like that weren't suppose to happen to people like Ryoma. I don't know her very well but from what I've heard she is bright, happy, and sarcastic. Things like that don't happen to people like her. Not to people I know,' Sayaka thought in disbelief. She felt herself drowning in despair and pain when a bright light hit her; Ryoma and Rinko need her. Rinko needs her and Ryoma needs her mother._

"_Rinko, is Ryoma going to be ok?" she asked, unsure._

"_I-I don't know, she's still in surgery," was the soft, broken reply._

"_They haven't come and gotten you yet, so she must still be alive! We have to believe in Ryoma, Rinko. She's and Echizen-Takeuchi! She's strong, stubborn and there's no way she'd go down without a fight. We just have to believe in her," Sayaka said trying to breathe hope into her distraught friend._

"_I-I. Yes. You're right. She is an Echizen-Takeuchi and we do NOT go down without a fight. I-Thank you Saya. Nanji and Ryoga and her teammates are here but I just didn't know who to turn to. Nanji and Ryoga are shaking and her teammates look like the life has been sucked out of their bodies…. I know what to do now. I need to be strong for Ryoma, for my family," the brunette spoke in a strong tone. _

_Sayaka smiled at her the tone in her friend's voice. She was happy her friend, who was 7 years her senior, was acting normally again. Sayaka believed that the brunette was much too hard on her self. Even if it wasn't her fault, the brown-eyed woman always felt responsible._

"_Rin-chan, I believe you have some people waiting for you. I want you to call me later but remember, you have to stay strong," the blue-eyed woman said._

"_You're right. I'll call you later Saya!" the brunette replied._

_~End Flashback~_

In the end Rinko only called Sayaka back to tell her that Ryoma was alive. She said that all the other details were top secret. Due to that, Sayaka never pushed but she remembered Rinko telling her how traumatized Ryoma was she had said that the golden-eyed girl didn't even talk the first 4 days.

The now 30-year-old looked up and saw the object of her previous thoughts smiling. She couldn't help but notice how healthy and bright Ryoma looked.

* * *

After a few more jokes at Kirihara's expense, the teenagers finally settled down enough to decide what they wanted to do. Sayaka wasn't participating because she went to do the dishes and declined any and all help.

"Ne, Why don't we go and play hide-and-go-seek?" Kikumaru asked enthusiastically.

"Where, puri?" Niou asked with a mischievous grin.

"Outside," Gakuto said quickly. No one wanted to give Niou freedom to explore the house *read: their rooms*.

Kikumaru and Gakuto looked around, "Everyone in?" They were met with varying levels of agreement.

Together, all 17 teens headed to the door. However along the way Ryoma remembered something.

"I forgot my shoes upstairs. You guys go on ahead," she said turning back towards the stairs.

Ryoma headed up the stairs and quickly ran to her room. She opened the door and turned on the lights. She was about to get her shoes from her closet when she saw the package on her desk. The tomboy remembered that she had yet to open the package and so it's content was still a mystery to her. She guessed it was probably a dress from her mother so she had waited to open it but she knew it was now or never. 'Never is a good idea,' she though to herself.

She pulled the box towards her and found a pair of scissors. Carefully, she cut the tape off the top and sides of the box. The tennis prodigy pulled the flaps apart and peered inside of the box.

She bit back a muffled scream and backpedaled to her door. The cocky girl started to pant as she collapsed to the floor. "Oh god….. Oh god…No…. No," she shook. She curled herself into a small ball on the floor as the tears flowed silently down her face.

What she saw in the box was certainly not a dress nor was it anything her mother would send her. Inside the box was a picture smeared with blood. To be more specific it was a picture of her and her savior.

During the incident Ryoma endured unthinkable torture and saw horrors most children should never have to see. This picture captured Ryoma's terror perfectly. In showed the young girl shackled to a wall, her side gushing with blood, watching her savior struggle to breathe as she lay on the ground, bleeding from the whip wounds.

The Polaroid brought back memories of pain and torture, but most of all of her savior, Toren. The one person who helped her endure the pain she experienced. He was the one to give her a reason to not give up. What was the worst part of the package was the fact that it was smeared with blood.

"Please…Oh god…. No…. Please…. No" she whispered, growing even more desperate with every word. Ryoma began to shake violently as she became lost in her own thoughts.

The golden-eyed girl felt the pain from the torture reappear on her body. Every blow, every kick, every whip began to rain down upon her all over again. She clutched her head, trying to shield herself from the phantom blows.

"Stop…. It hurts…. It hurts…Toren…. save me…TOREN!" Ryoma cried. Normally she would have tried to muffle her screams but the tennis prodigy wasn't really there, at least not mentally.

~Meanwhile with the boys~

The 16 boys were waiting for the lone girl of their group, when one of the less tactful boys voiced his thoughts.

"I wish Ryoma-chan made lunch," Marui sighed.

"Me too! Even if she is a demon chibi she sure does make good food," Kirihara nodded in agreement.

"Then we should ask Ochibi!" Kikumaru responded enthusiastically.

"Eiji! You should think about Echizen-chan before you suggest something like that. I'm sure she has enough to do without you guys having her make your lunches," Oishi scolded.

"But Oishi! We were just hoping. It's not like we were actually going to ask her," Seigaku's acrobat whined.

"Even if we did I don't think she would mind," Akutagawa stated, looking very awake for once.

"What makes you say that?" Oshitari asked. A chorus of "Yeah"s followed the tensai's question.

"Well," Akutagawa began. "If you looked at her during dinner you would have seen how happy she looked. And when we complimented her, it grew even bigger. She hid it pretty well though; she only smiled when we weren't looking."

The boys quietly digested this information. Only Seigaku's buchou and tensai and Rikkaidai's buchou and fukubuchou saw a glimpse of said smile, but it was so fleeting that they weren't quite sure. Now that they knew what they saw was real they believed that Hyotei's resident volley genius did have a point. The others also believed the volley specialist because it seemed plausible.

"So," Kikumaru began.

"Do you think that if we asked her to make us lunch," Kirihara continued.

"She would say yes?" Marui finished. All three boys looked at the narcoleptic in hope.

"Based on Akutagawa-san's statement. I would say there is a 79% chance of her saying yes," Inui concluded, writing in his notebook.

"Regardless. That would be inconsiderate towards Echizen-chan," Oishi said, giving the three boys a stern look.

Before the boys could protest or convince Seigaku's mother hen a voice interrupted them.

"She's been gone a long time, fsshhh," Kaidoh said frowning.

"It has been 15 minutes," Tezuka said.

"Spending 15 minutes to get shoes **is** normal for a girl," Shishido reasoned.

"That may be true but this is Echizen-san. She is more of a tomboy than a normal girl," Oshitari added.

"She is a person who doesn't seem to care what she wears," Inui put in.

"Do you think something happened?" Ootori asked in concern.

"Perhaps Ryo-chan simply didn't want to come and play with us. It could be because of some people's attitude," Fuji smiled.

"Nani! Ochibi hates us! What shall we do?" Kikumaru exclaimed, jumping on Oishi.

"She may never make us food **ever** again. And it's all your fault, puri," Niou added, grinning.

The less oblivious members knew that Seigaku's tensai and Rikkaidai's trickster were teaming up again. 'This can only lead to a headache,' Sanada and Tezuka thought.

"No food?" Marui, Kirihara, Kikumaru and Gakuto exclaimed in terror.

"Oishi! What will we do?" Kikumaru moaned again.

"Eiji, you need to calm down. I'm sure Echizen-chan doesn't hate any of us. Niou and Fuji were just joking," his doubles partner said, trying to calm down the redhead.

"Is that true Fuji-ko?" the normally hyperactive acrobat asked.

"Saa, who knows?" Fuji asked with a grin.

"Nya~! Fuji-ko is mean!" the reassured redhead pouted.

"Even so, Echizen-chan really has been gone for awhile," Marui said.

"Fsshhh, I think we should go check on her," Kaidoh said.

The other tennis players nodded in agreement and headed inside. They ran up the stairs and headed for the raven-haired girl's room.

Yukimura was about to knock when he heard a voice crying softly.

"Ryoma-chan?" he asked quietly. The sobbing continued, getting a bit louder.

"Ryoma-chan?" he asked louder, knocking on the door. Again the crying grew louder.

"Ryoma!" he yelled desperately. He could hear he sobs and for some reason, he felt like he needed to get to her.

He was about to yell again when he heard the crying stop. After a few moments of silence a small feeble voice sounded through the door, "Don't come in. I'm fine. I apologize for being late."

Rikkaidai's buchou wanted to go in anyway but he restrained himself. "Alright. We'll be waiting downstairs Ryoma-chan," he said, clearly still worried about the young girl.

"Alright. I will try to hurry," the soft, almost unrecognizable voice said.

The sadistic bluenette turned towards his fellow tennis players and shook his head. "She said that she would be down in a minute. She told us to go back downstairs," he said, walking back over to the stairs.

The other tennis players gave a look of confusion but followed the bluenette downstairs. None of them went downstairs without giving a look of confusion to the cocky tomboy's door.

~With Ryoma~

"Ryoma!" a loud voice broke through the haze. Ryoma slowly opened her eyes. She expected to see the cold dark warehouse that haunts her dreams, but instead she saw her room in Japan.

She took a deep breath to calm her rapid heartbeat and rubbed her eyes to stop the tears. When she wiped away all her tears, 'I can't believe I just crumbled like that. Crying never solved anything,' she internally berated herself.

She took a few more deep breaths and remembered what pulled her away from her memories. 'Shoot! Someone is at the door,' she panicked. Gathering all of her strength she managed to speak, "Don't come in. I'm fine. I apologize for being late."

After a few moments Ryoma heard a strong, familiar voice respond, "Alright. We'll be waiting downstairs Ryoma-chan." The tennis prodigy could tell that the speaker was worried but knew better than to press her. For that she was grateful.

With an inaudible sigh of relief she closed her eyes, "Alright. I will try to hurry." The shaken up girl waited against the wall with her eyes closed until she heard the boys file downstairs. 'They definitely won't let this go. I know they'll try to find out but until they do I can always fake it,' she thought as she calmed her turbulent emotions. "I can't let others get involved….Not again," she whispered to herself.

The golden-eyed girl slowly picked herself up off the floor and headed to her bathroom. When she finally emerged it looked like she had never been crying; her eyes weren't red nor were they puffy. The only indications of her previous mental breakdown were the various crescent moon marks on her body, from the intense pressure she applied in her broken state, and her disheveled hair. Even her voice, which was hoarse and soft before, was clear and normal.

Avoiding the box, she put on a light jacket to cover the marks on her body and grabbed her shoes before she headed out the door. Quickening her steps, she raced downstairs to meet the boys, throwing all thought of the _incident_ away from her. When she hit the last few stairs she carefully schooled her face into a nearly flawless mask of indifference.

* * *

The boys were all facing towards each other, silently thinking about what they had heard. They were so lost in their thoughts that they didn't notice the object of their thoughts sneak up behind their youngest member.

"Why are you all so serious," the girl asked, her head right next to the 'Demon's' ear.

"AHHHH!" the second-year ace screamed, falling over the chair he was sitting on.

The girl watched in silent fascination as the seaweed haired boy fell off the chair's arm and into the chair. After which, he fell off the chair and on to the floor with a loud "OOF".

"Seaweed head should really be more careful. He just fell out of nowhere," Ryoma said, staring at the boy on the floor.

Kirihara stood up, "Who just fell out of nowhere chibi?" With his vein throbbing, the boy grabbed Ryoma's cheeks and started pulling on them.

Carefully hiding her momentary freeze, she deadpanned, "You did baka seaweed head."

As Kirihara's vein began to throb more he pulled on the young girls cheeks more. Getting fed up with this, Ryoma did what she had done so many times before, she bit him. However this time she bite four of his fingers.

Another pained shriek erupted from the boy as he quickly dropped the girl to hide behind his cake-loving teammate. "She bit me! She bit me!" the boy moaned, nursing his bitten fingers.

The remaining boys, who had previously been stunned silent, erupted in laughter. They had thought she would be demure, broken and unstable. They were expecting her to wear a fake smile, not he usual look of indifference. However only a few noticed it was a mask. That everything she did was a farce.

"Are we going or not?" Ryoma asked, heading for the door.

The other tennis players hurried to follow and went outside as well. When they were all in the backyard they gathered in a circle to explain parameters and who would be 'it'.

"Ok, so here are the rules," Oshitari began. "1) The yard is fair game, but do not leave the yard. 2) You can hide wherever you want as long as you stay in the yard. 3) You can run and switch hiding places. 4) You can't set any traps for the person who is it," he said with a small glare at Niou.

"Hey! No one told me I couldn't and I did **not** want to be it, puri," the trickster said with a smirk.

Oshitari glared a bit more at Rikkaidai's trickster. "Anyway," he continued. " 5) No injuring the person who is 'it'. 6) Whoever is 'it' must count to 30 before running off. 7) When they are counting their eyes must be **closed** and **covered**," a glare was sent to Fuji.

All Fuji did was smile, like usual. Ryoma could already tell this was going to be interesting.

With a sigh Hyotei's blue haired tensai began again, "8) When you are found you must help the person who is 'it'. And 9) The last person found wins. Everyone understand?"

Everyone nodded their heads in silent agreement. Simultaneously they all lifted their hands, "JAN, KEN, PON!" The result of their rock-paper-scissors game was that everyone except for Yukimura, Sanada, Tezuka, Oshitari and Niou chose paper. The others chose scissors.

The remaining people yelled out, "JAN, KEN, PON!" Kaidoh, Inui, Shishido, Gakuto and Fuji won this round.

After two more rounds it was only Ryoma and Kirihara left. The two rookies glared at each other, "JAN, KEN, PON!" Ryoma chose paper and Kirihara chose paper.

"NO!" Kirihara moaned. "Why does Kami hate me?"

Kirihara hated being 'it'. Whenever he was he always got trapped in Niou's traps or someone was running from his helpers and ended up jumping on him.

With a sigh he covered his eyes and began counting, "Ichi. Ni. San…."

The other tennis players ran off to hide. They all ran in different directions, some hiding in a tree, others behind bushes and fountains and one person hid on top of the gazebo. It had a ledge that went up a bit so Ryoma was completely hidden.

From her vantage point the girl could easily see Kirihara running around, looking for people. She saw him pass by Kaidoh-senpai and run right by Sanada-senpai. It wasn't that the two boys were hiding well, it was more like Kirihara was just bad at hide-and-go-seek.

Smothering her amusement she saw him nearly miss Gakuto-senpai. In fact Kirihara would have missed him entirely except the branch Gakuto-senpai was perched on snapped and he jumped down, landing on Kirihara.

After Kirihara got Gakuto-senpai to help him the game became a lot more challenging. Gakuto, like Kikumaru had very good eye-sight and therefore he was able to see other people easily.

Pretty soon there were only 4 people left. Yukimura, Akutagawa, Inui and Ryoma were the only ones who could avoid or at least hide from everyone. Only Akutagawa and Ryoma hadn't moved from their spots. Yukimura and Inui just kept moving.

The 'Prince' saw a few of the helpers coming her way and she decided to move. Quietly the golden-eyed girl crawled over to a branch that was hanging by the gazebo and jumped on it. She walked swiftly to the base of the branch and flipped over it. She was hanging by her hands and she quickly swung over to the branch below her. She repeated by this action until she reached the ground. She saw Kirihara walking by the tree she was now crouched by and decided to throw a rock at his feet.

With a small, **thunk** the rock landed by the boy's feet. He crouched down and picked it up. Ryoma took this time to run right behind him and into the trees to his left.

Akaya lifted his head up, "What was that? It felt like the wind but it was laughing….It was a ghost!" he yelped. The scared boy ran right past Ryoma and into the gazebo.

The teenage girl giggled quietly as she heard the boy mumble quiet prayers and ran to her new hiding spot. She hid behind 2 large trees but she hoisted herself up on to a branch. Which she used as leverage to jump onto the braches that hung over the tennis players' head. Even Sanada didn't see her when he walked under the branches.

Leaning back she heard Akutagawa get found. It turns out he wasn't hiding, he just fell asleep in the hole of a tree. After a few more moments she heard Inui get found after he fell into one of Niou's traps. Rikkaidai's trickster had set up a trap even though he was told not to. Neither of the newly found boys seemed to mind being found. Truth be told, Inui was happy to be found because he got more data.

Shinsei's newest regular decided that it was high time she got down from the tree. She jumped down and crouched behind the tree. With a stifled yawn, she relaxed against the tree trunk. Within a few minutes she had fallen into a light slumber.

The 'Demon' of Rikkaidai found the tennis prodigy in that state. She was sleeping lightly but for once the normally rowdy walked quietly. He saw how peaceful her face was and he felt a smile grace his face. The normally cocky and sarcastic chibi actually looked cute and child-like for once.

He squatted down and stared at the girl's face. He couldn't actually believe that Echizen Ryoma was asleep. Kirihara had expected the small girl to be awake and easy to catch but as of now she was the second to last person to be found.

The next thing the boy did was incredibly stupid. He tried to wake Ryoma up…..again. The green-eyed boy used his index finger to poke her cheek. Subconsciously Ryoma turned and bit his finger. He jerked his hand back and screamed in silent pain. She had bitten the same finger she had bitten numerous times before.

With his wounded finger in his mouth he used his other hand to shake the girl awake. He didn't expect the girl's golden eyes to shoot open and widen in terror. With unseeing eyes the girl looked at the green-eyed boy's and jump up and out of his light grasp.

Ryoma's breath came out in pants and she clutched her shirt. Kirihara saw her distress and reached out to touch her arm when she slapped his arm and screamed, "NO!" and backed up.

Kirihara took a step closer to the girl, "Echizen-chan?"

The sound of his voice snapped Ryoma out of her terror and she looked at her senpai again. This time she saw who it was. This time she didn't see the monster that usually haunts her memories. Instead she saw her senpai with concern written all over his face.

Realizing what she had done she backed up more, "Oh god….I….I….Gomenasai, senpai," she whispered.

Before the green-eyed boy could open his mouth the horrified female ran off. She ran past him and ran not towards the house but towards the tennis courts.

For once in his life, Kirihara Akaya, was stunned by a girl. The look of raw terror froze him in his tracks and all he could do was stand there. Her words resounded through his head, _"Oh god….I….I….Gomenasai, senpai."_ Those 6 words jolted him out of his thoughts and without a second thought he ran after her.

~Page Break~

Ryoma didn't know where she was but at that moment she just didn't care. All she wanted to do was run. The only thought in her mind was to get as far away from everyone as possible. She didn't even notice the boys she ran past.

She was completely embarrassed and terrified but what really drove her was the panic she felt. She looked up with hazy eyes and saw a track. She started to slow down when a hand gripped her arm.

"Echizen!" a voiced called out in concern.

Ryoma whirled around and saw Kirihara staring at her in concern, "What is it senpai?"

Kirihara stared at her a bit more before he asked, "What happened? Whatever it is I'm sorry."

Ryoma felt a splash of horror hit her, he thought it was his fault? "No, baka don't flatter yourself," she said trying to cover up her guilt.

Kirihara scowled at the younger teen. 'What? This chibi! I was just worried! Geez! She doesn't have to be so rude! That's the last time I ever care!' he thought. He was about to open his mouth to voice his opinions; when a voice interrupted him.

"I have my own problems. It's not your fault. Just forget about it. Gomenasai," a quiet voice spoke turning around. The sincerity and the pain in her voice struck him.

The girl managed to slip out of Kirihara's grasp and began running to the track. When she hit the track she began to run. She became a machine; step, step, breathe, step, step, breathe, and repeat.

Kirihara watched his kouhai run laps and thought, 'Maybe, just maybe she's not so bad.' He was about to run after her and talk to her when he remembered how she reacted the last time, 'I guess she just needs to be alone'. With that he ran back to the house, but not before tripping over a tree root.

If Kirihara had run after her he would have seen the tears running down her eyes. "I hate this. I hate this. I hate myself. Why am I so weak?" she asked herself. Her eyes held the pain no young girl should ever feel and she felt disgusted with herself. 'This is why I came to Japan. I came to heal' she thought angrily.

* * *

By the time Ryoma had stopped running and walked back to the house, there was no one left outside. She was glad for the emptiness and the silence, for she did not want to answer the questions she knew Kirihara would have.

The tennis prodigy turned and walked up the stairs to her room. When she got into the room she flopped on to her bed. She sighed and picked up her phone and saw that Kelly and Joel as well as her other friends had sent her some emails. Ryoma smiled at her friends' emails. It was comforting to knowing they were ok and that they weren't giving up. When she finally finished writing replies to her friends she opened the one she had been saving for last, Kevin's.

_Ryoma!_

_How are you?_

_I am training as usual and practice is going good. We all miss you. I can't wait to see you again. I heard your team is really strong. Did you make it? What am I asking? Of course you did. You better keep practicing for a next match, when you come back._

_Kelly is annoying, as usual and Joel is cool, of course. Nothing has really changed except we've got a new regular. He's pretty cool. I still miss you. I mean I don't know how you handle all the paper work for tournaments! SAVE ME! Kelly wouldn't let me leave until I finished it all . Joel couldn't even help me! Plus the lunches Kelly makes are awful! She burnt ice! Ice! I miss your food! *cries*_

_Anyways, how are you? Are you ok? Your call totally freaked me out! I just wanted you to know that we are doing our best to watch out for you over here. Don't worry it'll be different this time. Trust me. ;) _

_I checked on that person you asked me to. He's doing well. In fact I think he knows you're not here. The doctors said that his brain activity is getting a lot higher. I'll keep you updated. _

_I better wrap this up; Kelly keeps bothering me. I think it's her shopping-withdrawal. You better send her some clothes! And you should send Joel and I some food while you're at it. I don't think Kelly should cook again._

_Write back soon!_

_-Kev, the amazing_

_P.S Train hard so we can have a match soon! _

Ryoma smiled at one of her best friends' email. For some reason she always liked to read Kevin's emails last; perhaps it's because he's always complaining about something and he's reasons are just ridiculous. 'His actually make sense if I read Kelly and Joel's first,' she thought in amusement.

The cat-eyed girl was a little sad that she worried her friends but she was happy they were getting along all right without her. She yawned tiredly and headed to the bathroom. She quickly got changed and went to bed, cuddling with Karupin.

The entire time Karupin had just sat and watched his master cry. He knew she didn't want pity or sorrow or worry, all she wanted was courage to face her fears. However he was always watching her quietly. When she was crying, he curled next to her, not that she noticed, and when she was running around, he was waiting in the tree making sure the strange seaweed-boy stayed away. However he did get to hang out with that nice bandana-wearing boy that lived here. He liked to feed and give Karupin a lot of treats.

During his observations he noticed that his master was in pain. It hurt the Himalayan cat to know that she was hurting but he understood she wanted to find her own strength. However, even if she didn't want help he would stand by her side.

The tennis addict cuddled the Himalayan cat and soon fell into a deep slumber. Which Karupin followed her faithfully in to. It was a long day and the two were grateful for the sleep. Tomorrow was a new day with many new things to come.

* * *

The boys had all changed into their pajamas earlier and were sitting up playing games and talking. Tomorrow they didn't have school so many of them decided to have a sleep over. They were enjoying themselves but their little kouhai never left their minds. She worried them greatly but much of their worries calmed when they heard her door open and close. They released a collective sigh and returned to their individual conversations and/or games.

After another hour or so of talking and games the boys soon began to drift to sleep. Some actually went to bed properly *read: Sanada, Tezuka, Inui, Oshitari, and Kaidoh*, others struggled to stay awake but quickly drifted off *read: Kikumaru, Gakuto, Marui, Shishido and Akutagawa* and subconsciously cuddled with others, which pulled them into the depths of sleep as well *read: Oishi, Niou and Ootori*. However a few stayed awake thinking. Each was thinking about the newest housemate and the secrets and unknown skills they knew lied beneath the surface

* * *

**It's done! YAY! Please Read and Review! I love all the answers to my questions! =)**

**So, now it's question time! Yay! Wow there are a lot...**

**1) Who is Torren?**

**2) What will Akaya and Yuki and Fuji do regarding Ryoma?**

**3) Will more couples appear?**

**4) What will happen tomorrow?**

**5) Who is this new regular Kevin talked about?**

**6) Who sent Ryoma the package?**

**7) What actually happened to Ryo-chan?**

**8) What is Fuji feeling?**

**9) What is Yuki feeling?**

**10) What Akaya feeling?**

**11) Why is Akaya such a klutz?**

**12) Why can't the regulars ever play a normal game of Hide-and-go-Seek?**

**and of course...**

**13) Who will Ryoma end up with?**

**This is the last chapter you may vote on...so VOTE!**

**Please Read and Review and Vote! There is something special for my 100th review! ^_^**


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